Jump to content

Valuing our future toolkit

Sustainable schools

'Valuing our future - a toolkit for developing sustainable schools', was produced in 2008 in conjunction with school leaders and offers practical tips, case studies and advice about how to get the process started.

Based around the 'eight doorways', the tool was designed with a school’s leadership team in mind. The idea is that it is completed collectively so that everybody feels a sense of ownership in relation to becoming a sustainable school.

It aims to:

  • identify different strands of sustainability work already underway in your school (most schools find closer examination reveals they are doing more than they realised).
  • think strategically about what more can be done in the short-term and longer term to develop sustainability in your school and community.
  • allocate responsibility for developing action plans (some schools have done this by asking each department head to present their own plan for developing sustainability in their area).

Download a copy

You can also download all the components of the toolkit to help you begin your group discussions. These are:

Why should we booklet - provides a brief background to why sustainability is now so important for schools.It is a useful document to download and print off to use as part of a group discussion.

Getting started booklet- gives you instructions on how to get the most out of the toolkit. It offers you suggestions about how to organise and facilitate a group activity specifically set up to tackle this subject.

Setting your vision booklet - helps you create your own collective vision that represents what your school is trying to achieve.The booklet provides you with three example vision statements that you can use as inspiration.

Reflection sheet - this is a simple table that you may want to print off to help you assess where you are now and where you want to go in the future.

Image of interactive mat - this was originally produced in a poster format and used to encourage group interaction.and structured discussion. This would still work as a useful reference and starting point.

As a set, along with the individual doorway booklets below, they are a powerful resource to help your school operate in a more sustainable way. Please note that the online documents do not include the 'vision cards' mentioned in some of the booklets.

Eight doorways

You may choose to look at just one doorway initially or start work on several at the same time. The doorways often interrelate - work in one area often having an impact on other areas. Don't forget to read the 'getting started' booklet for ideas on how to audit your current practice and plan future activity around these eight subjects.

"A truly adaptable tool that supports schools at different points on the sustainability journey. We are a permanent Green Flag school so you might think there isn't much we could gain from using this tool but you'd be quite wrong. Sustainability isn't something you do and then it's finished. This tool helps you find new approaches to match changes in circumstances. Using this toolkit to continually review and audit progress is now an integral part of our sustainable development action plan."

Brian Thomas, Headteacher, Milton Mount Primary School, West Sussex

"We really like this toolkit. It brings everything together in one place and it's so attractive and accessible. It's very good at inspiring adults and it motivates you to get involved - it just leads you in. We're thinking of using the wheel image in a variety of sizes and ways to represent sustainability around the college and keep it in everyone's consciousness. We have linked it to our school's pastoral model and have given each of our eight houses its own doorway, or section of the sustainability wheel, to develop."

Peter Cobbold, Vice Principal, Coombeshead College, Devon

"This toolkit has broadened both staff and pupil understanding about what education for sustainable development is and how to build it. I took the tool into Year 5 and 6 to see what children would do with it. They were more aware than adults when using it as an audit tool and they came up with lots of quality ideas about what we could do in the future. This toolkit is helping me to empower others to lead and drive things so that it will become sustainable. An invaluable audit tool that enables clearer thinking and suggests possible areas of study about what we can do in the future."

Robert Kempner , Headteacher, Whiteshill Primary School, Gloucestershire