Wilshere-Dacre Junior Academy 

Sustainability Policy

At Wilshere-Dacre and as part of REAch2 we are committed to revolutionising our approach to sustainability. By empowering our children to become environmental ambassadors, we will ignite their potential to effect positive change.  

REAch2 Objectives: 

• Empower all our children with the knowledge to comprehend environmental sustainability and empower them to champion change. 

• By 2027, significantly diminish our carbon footprint. 

• Implement environmental initiatives that champion, conserve, and enrich local biodiversity. 

To achieve these goals, we will: 

• Ensure each school devises a sustainability action plan, placing ecological literacy and environmental sustainability at the core of its curriculum. 

• Aid all REAch2 schools in attaining nationally recognised Eco-Awards by fostering rich biodiverse environments. 

• Engage all our children in community endeavours to foster positive environmental action in their surroundings. 

• Diminish our carbon footprint by enhancing infrastructure and embracing environmentally conscious procurement processes. 

• Invest in our staff to obtain accreditation in environmental sustainability. 

• Embrace various activities that reconnect our children with nature, nurturing their stewardship of the environment. 

Our Sustainability Story 

At Wilshere-Dacre, we have always cared about the environment and been concerned about any changes we can make to help our school become more sustainable and kinder to the planet.  We have had an active and passionate Eco Council for over 15 years, where the children have worked hard to raise awareness of environmental issues.  Different reps from each class are voted on each year.  We hold assemblies, organise fundraising and activist days/ workshops, run competitions and awareness weeks such as Walk to School Week, Switch off Fortnight, Plastic Free July, and Earth Day.  We regularly review and improve our recycling systems (to include recycling our dead pens and crisp packets as well as the usual council collected items) and reduce plastic waste by making our own Christmas crackers.  We take part in the Eco-Schools scheme every few years which helps us to review what we do and create an action plan.  We were awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag Award with Distinction in 2022 for our efforts and achievements. 

As part of the REAch2 sustainability strategy, Wilshere-Dacre Junior Academy is one of ten pilot schools leading changes in sustainability and trialling new schemes and ideas to make our school a more sustainable place to be and learn.  

As part of this journey, we are developing our curriculum to empower all our children with the knowledge to comprehend environmental sustainability and to become agents of change. Our curriculum has been developed with experts, based on research, and with REAch2 we have been able to work with CAPE (Climate Adapted Pathways for Education), Learning through Landscapes, Natural History Museum and National Geographic Society to develop the content and sequencing of our curriculum. 

Forssten Seiser et al. (2022) state that ‘education for sustainable development calls for an education that empowers students, both in the long and short terms, by enhancing their action competences and their awareness of how to contribute to positive sustainable changes.’ 

We have begun adapting our curriculum to allow climate change education to be taught within each subject area. Currently the geography and science curricula are being developed and, by 2025, both subjects will have climate change education integrated across every year group. 

We are also developing our provision for Outdoor Learning which includes the building of a new school garden and wooded area for growing vegetables and for bringing more lessons outside.  In 2024/45, we also have training planned for teachers to equip them with the skills and confidence to plan in more lessons for children outdoors. 

Future plans also include training all staff in Carbon Literacy so that they can transfer this important information to the children with the aim of them all becoming more carbon literate and aware of which actions carry more or less environmental benefits that others.  We are also learning how we can discuss ‘eco anxieties’ through the medium of Art and hope this to help with the processing of difficult feelings related to the climate crisis as the children learn more about it. 

For more information on what we do, take a look at our Eco Council pages (in the Children section)