Solihull School

We realise the challenges that our planet faces when it comes to global warming, and the impact that climate change is having upon our local, national and international environment. As a result, we have created our ‘Sustainability Statement of Intent’. This outlines our firm commitment to reduce our carbon footprint, with a net zero target of 2050, and highlights what we already do towards educating our pupils about the necessary actions that we must take, as both a school and a society. We consider sustainability the responsibility of every internal stakeholder in our school.

We have taken a number of actions to address our impact on the planet and we are working with specialist companies to identify and action plans to further reduce our CO2 emissions. Past implementations have included, but are not limited to, installing solar panels, installing LED lighting to replace old style bulbs, monitoring our food waste with our external catering company, and using timed switch off systems for our computers. Our transport plans are regularly reviewed, and we monitor demand for shared transportation to both our sites, offering bus routes where it is appropriate to do so.

The issue of sustainability is addressed throughout the teaching of many subjects. Whilst some would consider sustainability to be the facet of Science and Geography, it is in fact covered far more widely. Economics students can expect to learn about the negative externalities of pollution and the effectiveness of pollution permits/carbon taxing to solve this deadweight welfare loss. In Business, pupils will discover how a business that adopts sustainable goals could give that business a USP. Design Technology covers the importance of considering which materials are best to use from a sustainability perspective. Assemblies across both campuses also highlight the importance of sustainability.

Across both our sites, our students have the opportunity to engage with extracurricular activities around sustainability.

Our ‘Roots & Shoots’ movement in the Prep School enables students to come up with different activities that they would like to undertake to improve their local environment, either through recycling, planting bulbs for Spring, or raising money for one of our charity partners in Sri Lanka. The annual Charity Week has raised money towards an eco-brick project to build an Early Childhood Development Centre and for Chimp Eden Sanctuary.

The Eco-Action Group at the Senior School meet on a weekly basis to identify the environmental needs of the school, create schemes to address these needs and then implement these. This helps build their teamworking, leadership, resilience and time management skills, whilst working towards achieving outcomes that help to lower the school’s carbon footprint. The Group have also attended local Solihull Schools Climate Conference, which acts as a mini-COP, enabling our students to enhance their public speaking and debating skills.

We work closely with our international partner schools on the issue of sustainability. Examples of such collaborations have included a competition organised by the British Council called ‘Better Together’, in which we had to collaborate with schools abroad and present a programme to a panel of judges. Schools in Greece, Croatia, Latvia and Cyprus took part and the presentation was chaired by our Eco Committee but involved each school sharing the live presentation.

We have also previously gained a ‘Connecting Classrooms’ grant for a project about sustainable cooking, with pupils analysing their food consumption for food miles and sustainable farming methods. This led to a live link up with our partner school, St Mary's Christian School in India, where we shared sustainable recipes and cooked dishes from each other's country.

We take great pride in the fact that our pupils can leave with a considerable range of understanding about sustainability, and how to act as environmentally responsible individuals.