Discover the ideas and tools we provided to inspire and celebrate Climate Leaders in schools and beyond.

CLIMATE LEADERS ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOLS

Looking for ideas for activities? There are so many fun and inspiring ways you can help your students find their inner Climate Leader. Below are just a few to spark your creativity.

Your school is invited to join Schools vs. Climate Change

Following COP26 in November, we invited schools to take part in an exciting nationwide tournament, Schools vs. Climate Change, that used the fun of football to encourage children and families to take direct action on climate, where going One Step Greener is the only way to win. Schools climbed a national league table based on how many green goals their school community could score, to see who came out on top.

Green School Assembly

Build green momentum among pupils and teachers with an engaging assembly that informs about the issues and empowers with positive climate actions.​

You could extend the assembly with an interactive break-out session where students can brainstorm climate-friendly behaviours.​

If you’re feeling inspired, why not run a Climate Week and invite local Climate Leaders and interested parents to come in and run guest assemblies?

Download the Green School Assembly presentation and speaker’s notes.

Walk to school week

Show your community how united your young Climate Leaders are in the fight against climate change by inviting all your students to walk to school for a whole week.

Make it a fun five days by crafting a ‘walking bus’ for your students to carry.

You could also give parents the opportunity to polish up their Climate Leader credentials and ‘drive’ the walking buses.​

If you’d like to do this, don’t forget you’ll need to create an email to send to parents with consent forms.

The school play

Use your Climate Leader creativity to put on a brilliant environmental spectacle.

Your school play could look at themes of caring for the environment and how climate leaders through the ages have contributed to better ways to protect the environment.

If you know a budding writer, why not create an original script. For example, you could take your students on a journey to meet great Climate Leaders through the ages like Einstein, Leonardo and Boyan Slat.

Pupils can be encouraged to reuse materials and clothing for costumes and props. If you’d like to put on a play, you’ll also need to think about costume ideas, staging and recruiting a cast.

CLIMATE RESOURCES

The best climate resources from across the internet, covering everything from teaching students of all ages about climate change to how you can get your whole school climate ready.*

“Our Climate Our Future” created by WWF and partners

This pack focused on COP26 and raised awareness and applied understanding of the Summit and climate change amongst young people across the UK. This pack also included resources for schools to hold mini climate summits, and workshops to identify and plan individual and school actions.  

Blue Peter Green Badge

Become a Blue Peter Climate Hero by helping the environment and earning a Green badge. Upload your photos and artwork to show how much you care about nature, the environment and your planet. Find out how to apply for your Green Badge!

BBC Bitesize: The Regenerators

The Regenerators from BBC Bitesize is an environmental initiative that aims to educate and inspire children, young people and families to take simple steps to build a greener future. There are online lessons (for KS1 and KS2 to begin with) as well as articles and tips on how we can all have a more positive impact on the environment. For more info please go to the BBC Bitesize website

LEGO

The LEGO Group are gathering children’s ideas to create a set of LEGO building instructions for a better planet to give to decision makers. The Building Instructions for a Better World workshop pack provides a lesson pack for schools, communities and summer camps to enable children to generate their three instructions for world leaders to better protect the planet from climate change.

NatWest MoneySense Competition

NatWest’s MoneySense programme includes various resources to help kids learn about the link between saving money and saving the planet.  In partnership with Top Trumps, the Climate Savers competition challenges primary school pupils to design Top Trumps cards showing actions we can take to help save the planet, with winning designs to be chosen for an exclusive deck of cards plus the chance for teachers to win money for environmental projects at their school. Also part of MoneySense, “Island Saver” is a fun, free, full-size video game that teaches children about money whilst helping to clean up the environment.

Met Office for Schools

Weather and climate affect everything, from the way we live, to what we eat, to our personal safety. Met Office for Schools will help young people understand the wide-reaching impacts of weather and climate change locally and globally, for people, places and businesses.

Climate Negotiations in the Classroom – the Royal Meteorological Society has developed award winning resources to allow you to run a simulated climate negotiations event in 2 standard lessons. They are aimed at students aged 13+ with a basic understanding of greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change Teachers Toolkit by Edsential

The Climate Change Teachers Toolkit by Edsential is an easy to navigate library of resources that link directly to the curriculum. It will support classroom learning about climate change and the four targets being discussed at the COP26 conference.  Select resources by learning stage, subject or COP26 goal.

Talking to young people about the climate

Find thoughtful guidance on how to talk to young people about climate change on National GeographicWorld’s Largest Lesson, or Thought Box.

Environment Agency

Make your whole school climate ready 

Institution-wide programmes for students and educators

Resources and short projects for Early Years and Lower Primary Schools

  • Inspire younger children to learn about the world through games, videos and teaching resources with Earthcubs
  • Younger children can take part in an art project to represent their love of nature with We Love Our Planet
  • Teach younger pupils to explore nature and wildlife with Wildlife Watch resources

Resources and short projects for Upper Primary and Secondary Schools

Climate animations featuring Kristen Bell (written by Myles Allen, David Biello and George Zaidan)

Content by TEDEd

Male teacher sat with children as they work

“The children across all schools are the voices of tomorrow. They are the ones that are going to make a difference.”

Simon Gilbert-Barnham
Principal, Ormiston Venture Academy

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*Please note, the resources above and any associated products have not been produced or quality assured by COP26. Schools should always assess resources produced by external agencies carefully to ensure they are factually accurate, age appropriate, and in line with your school’s legal duties in relation to political impartiality.