Following the success of our first Sustainability and Climate Action Summit last summer, on Tuesday 10th November 2026 we held our first Sustainability and Climate Action Group Workshop.
Hosted by Hannah Di Vuono and Claire Hilton with Sustainability Leads, School Business Managers and Site Managers from across the Watergrove community, the discussion-based morning prompted ideas around how we should celebrate the work we are already undertaking, aligning on our next steps and building further connections across the Trust to drive this vital work.
Each of our schools have a bespoke Climate Action Plan that encompass a number of aims relating to climate education and green skills, adaptation and resilience, decarbonisation and biodiversity. By meeting to reflect and discuss our achievements and upcoming challenges, the group were able to provide one another with different approaches and ways to progress different aspects of their climate actions.
We started our morning revisiting our work so far and celebrating updates from across the Trust that are helping schools achieve sustainability and climate action goals with efforts from both colleagues and learners. From children discovering how to reduce food waste with Open Kitchen Mcr at St James’ C of E Primary School through an interactive workshop, to Matthew Moss High School installing a series of additional water fountains to reduce plastic waste, it was clear to see the enthusiasm and momentum within each school driving the work forwards.
We were grateful to be joined by Simon Colderley, Programme Officer for the National Education Nature Parks programme who delivered an engaging and hands-on workshop demonstrating to colleagues how to use to use the platform and resources that help to bring understanding biodiversity to life in the classroom. Participants engaged with a mindul sound mapping exercise followed by conducting grassland surveys to establish how the areas found commonly on school grounds could be transformed into meadows to increase biodiversity on site.
Thank you to our colleagues at Kentmere Academy for hosting our first action group meeting and thank you to all of our attendees for bringing their enthusiasm and ambition to the workshop.
