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In September 2005 St Bede’s Inter-church Comprehensive School received their specialist humanities status, one of the first schools in the country to do so. Through this award, the school is resourced to hold humanities days, the first of which in 2005 focused on Africa, and the social and environmental problems the continent faces.

Following the success of the first humanities day, the school decided to hold a day focusing on the environment at the global, national and local levels. To plan the event, St Bede’s Environment Committee was established and invited organisations including the Environment Agency, British Antarctic Survey, Donarbon and the Cambridge Wildlife Trust, as well as representatives from various political parties and voluntary groups who work with local communities on environmental issues.

This event raised awareness among the students concerning many of the pressing environmental issues, including climate change and the effects it will have on their lives. All pupils entered personal learning forms to produce a display board summarising their experiences.

The Environment Committee continued working around the school to try and make it a more sustainable environment.Ìý Through this, the Environment Committee discovered the Eco Schools Awards which was set up to provide grants and a framework to help schools become more environmentally sustainable. Having reviewed the goals of the scheme, a bid was made and the school successfully achieved the Silver award.

The school received £4,500 in order to meet their environmental targets. They decided to tackle three basic areas: litter, water and energy. The Environment Committee created an Eco-code and applied the rules to the school environment, investing in items that would help us to meet our action plan targets. After 6 months the school has met its targets and received a Silver Eco-schools award.

Leading up to receiving the Silver Eco-schools award, the school began to think about what they would do in the future, particularly to look at climate change. The campaign, ‘Open Your Eyes’, is a climate awareness scheme around the need to clarify the myths surrounding global warming and climate change. It also aims to explain why the British environmental input is crucial, for example the ripple effect; so that when other countries see how much we have benefited from adapting to climate change and how simple it is to reduce carbon emissions, they will follow suit. We must be the leaders on climate change.