Greening the Curriculum

It is already very difficult to fit the present National Curriculum successfully into the school timetable. Therefore, the Our Schools, Our World programme is realistic in that it aims to support schools in integrating a progressive climate change, sustainability and environmental education programme into their present curriculums so it does not require more time.

OSOW ‘Greening the Curriculum’ Explained

We work with schools in approaches to greening the curriculum i.e.

  1. changing the context of the present curriculum to place it in a more climate change/sustainability context
  2. finding purposeful and effective ways of connecting learning with the outdoors/nature
  3. linking it to whole school improvement

This approach is also better for several key reasons:

  1. The learning is placed in a meaningful context within the present curriculum rather than as isolated modules
  2. Children and young people learn the key skills and knowledge holistically across all subjects
  3. Learning is linked closely to sustainability improvements within the whole school
  4. Children and young people learn to see the world consistently through a green lens

Working with our pilot schools, we have come up with possible examples of the integration of learning about climate change and sustainability into your present curriculum so existing skills progressions are not undermined. The examples illustrated are by no means an exhaustive list; they will on the other hand enable you and you staff to begin to understand what we mean by seeing the curriculum ‘through a green lens’. They will be a good starting point and discussion area for teacher planning of the integration of climate change and sustainability skills and knowledge into your present subject modules.

Please do share your successful of ‘greening’ the curriculum and they can be added to the documents below.

Curriculum ideas – collaborated on by OSOW schools on November 2024 training days.