Leading for a sustainable future
The Copenhagen summit has highlighted the passion which young people from around the world have about the environment and about their part in trying to secure a sustainable future for themselves and subsequent generations.
The National College works closely with school leaders in England who are at the forefront of practice when it comes to transforming their schools into sustainable institutions and embedding sustainability into their curriculum. Our latest research Sustainability and renewal: findings from the Leading Sustainable Schools research project by the Institute of Education and Forum for the Future, involved a study of 56 schools who are leading the way in developing sustainability in their school and wider community.
The findings identify seven characteristics of sustainable schools, many of which bring key benefits to pupils, and the leadership qualities required by school leaders to develop and embed sustainability within their school.
The study supports a think piece Every Child’s Future: leading the way by Jonathon Porritt CBE and Professor David Hopkins, which argues that today’s children and young people have a challenging future ahead and which calls for a new style of leadership in education to help them address this challenge.
It states that leading for a sustainable future needs to be grounded in moral purpose and working with the school and wider community so that children can learn, not only about what is happening now but about what needs to be different about their lives if we are to successfully address issues such as climate change, reduced natural resources and population growth. It says that education is “uniquely placed to make a significant contribution to a sustainable future for every child, and it has the responsibility to make the difference”.
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