Community Group: Glaitness Primary School

Researchers: Florian Ahrens, PhD student (International Centre for Island Technology, Heriot Watt University) and Paolo Cherubini, Postdoctoral researcher (School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot Watt University)

Location: Kirkwall, Isle of Orkney

Developing a sustainable education and travel programme to support Glaitness primary school in achieving its net zero transport goals.

Florian Ahrens, PhD student at Heriot Watt University, International Centre for Island Technology, working with Glaitness Primary School, said:

Establishing that understanding [of how the causes of climate change are linked to everyday activities at the school] actually really helped the students to latch on to something that they can do… it has [led to the formation] of net zero heroes, as they call themselves. And they're actually really leading all the efforts. They're communicating their needs to the parents, they're talking to the younger ones and the nursery …read[ing] stories to them and they take care that everyone's on board and they also lead the conversations with other students or with other teachers about barriers to sustainable school transport and so on.

Phase 1 community-led research project

Glaitness Primary School, one of two primary schools in Kirkwall, Orkney, explored how it could achieve its net zero goals by working with doctoral researchers Florian Ahrens and Paolo Cherubini, under the supervision of Prof. Susan Krumdieck.

Together they created a Sustainable Education and Travel Programme as an attempt to achieve the school’s net zero school transport goals, including developing trial materials that could be used in the classrooms and with parents, and encouraging people to try different ways of getting to school including forms of active transport.

They also developed a way of collecting this data on travel so that it could be shared with the local authority as a means of supporting widespread culture change.

Capacity Building Project

In Phase 2 the capacity building grant helped the school and the researchers to consolidate this work and explore ways to further embed it in the school programme.

In addition to lesson plans and educational packages, they have developed a prototype data system which allows exchange of transport data between students and teachers and provides evidence of where they currently are in relation to net zero targets.

Research impacts

Community lead and teacher Kate Towsey noted that this work with the researchers gave her more confidence and structure as a practitioner to engage with young people about climate change.

The school’s headteacher also noted the change they had witnessed in the school culture, in terms of a greater understanding about what climate change is but also in terms of how the causes of climate change relate to day-to-day activities in the school, especially with regards to transport.

The project is now planning a whole school event to consolidate the educational programme across the school community, identifying infrastructural barriers as well as opportunities for better implementation.