Short Term and Long Term Actions: Department for Education
On 21st April 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) first published its strategy paper: ‘Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems. (1)’ This document was subsequently updated on 20th December 2023.
On 18th May 2023, the Department for Education issued the guidance document ‘Sustainability leadership and climate action plans in education’(2) which was updated on 7th March 2025.
The strategy document, brought together short, medium and longer-term actions to enable progress towards achieving the department’s four strategic aims and overarching vision. The strategy covers the period to 2030. The DfE's Vision:
'for the United Kingdom to be the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030.’
What does this mean for our primary schools?
For our schools, there are five action areas that need to be addressed by education and children’s service systems:
1. Climate Education
2. Green Skills and Careers
3. Education Estate and Digital Infrastructure
4. Operations and Supply Chains
5. International Leadership, Engagement and Next Steps
1) Climate Education and 2) Green Skills and Careers
These first two action areas are addressed in, but by no means limited to, the document below.
A key output for each of our primary schools was to build and deliver an Action Plan, specific to their school. Here are two examples:
Egerton Primary School, Knutsford
Dove Bank Primary School, Kidsgrove