Environmental Education
Environmental education has been present in one form or another throughout Eton’s history, as exemplified by the founding of the Natural History Museum in the late 1800s (one of the few remaining maintained school museums for natural history in the UK). Indeed, the museum is now used for outreach on a regular basis. Today, Environmental Education at Eton aims to develop ways to encourage the following with respect to environmental sustainability.
Awareness – build awareness of a broad scope of issues, ranging from energy (sourcing and waste), waste management (including recycling, food and water), purchasing (ethical and sustainable sourcing) and how these relate to the climate and biodiversity crises.
Ethos – foster sustained good habits by having sustainability embedded in infrastructure and operations.
Action – encourage and support projects undertaken by the College and by students.
Activities
Environment Society
The Environment Society is a student-led venture where external speakers are invited to give talks, seminars or workshops on wide-ranging environmental themes. Local and partnership schools are always invited. This year, meetings included Dr Palmer, on fast cars and the environment, and an evening conversation with the CEO of Fauna and Flora International. Meetings are held on Thursdays and start at 8:45pm. Numbers vary depending on the subject but we often welcome small numbers of external students from the TVLP and Berkshire Schools Eco Network (BSEN).
Environment Week
Environment Week celebrates World Environment Day (5th June) each year. It was a week of events aimed at increasing awareness of environmental issues, notably the biodiversity and climate crises. There were multiple society meetings with external speakers. Holyport College ran their Environment Week in the same week and we collaborated on ideas and resources.
Berkshire School Eco Network
The Berkshire Schools Eco Network (BSEN), is composed of 10 secondary state and independent schools, including Eton College, Wellington, the Marist, Holyport College and many others. It is modelled off the London Schools Eco Network (LSEN) and is part of the wider national UK Sustainable Schools Network (UKSSN). It is a network that aims to encourage environmental action internally and externally. It shares ideas of projects and supports schools in running these projects, as well as participating in national events to raise the profile of both the BSEN and environmental issues. Eton ran a logo competition and ran a session for the Youth Climate Summit 2020 on Food, Farming and Forests, aimed at primary school children. a student from Year 13, Marist, and Year 13, Eton College, went to COP26 and participated in the Al Gore Climate Leadership programme.
Community Engagement with Eton Porny First School
Members of Environmental Action have re-engaged with Eton Porny to revive their former Eco-Club. Students have started to attend clean-ups in the afternoon to get to know the children and will be working on the achievement of the green flag award and the delivering of a few environmental themed sessions.
Beyond Cop21 Symposium
The Beyond COP21 Symposium series begun in 2016 in Dubai and Eton College was the thirty-first school to host. All of Eton’s Year 9 students attended alongside 150 students from local schools for two days of talks and workshops around climate change and a sustainability showcase exhibition with local charities. Participating schools included: Beechwood School, Charters School, Claires Court, Holme Grange, Holyport College, Slough and Eton Business and Enterprise College, St Joseph's Catholic High School, The Abbey, The Windsor Boys' School.
Impact
Students’ feedback from the Beyond Cop21 Symposium:
“I think it made me feel more confident discussing issues as I was in a room with so many people who wanted to make change.” - Year 9 student, The Abbey
“It made me feel more inspired to do more for preventing climate change, it also made me feel a lot more aware about the events taking place that are related to climate change.” - Year 12 student, Claires Court
“It completely changed the way I thought about climate change. Showing the giant spectrum of consequences and disasters that come with it.” - Year 10 student, St Joseph's Catholic High School
“I am definitely more interested than I was going into it. I want to take action myself and I am interested in volunteering for a local environment group.” - Year 10 student, The Windsor Boys' School
