Barnet School Charter for Sustainability

About the Barnet School Charter

The Barnet School Charter has been designed to fulfil the requirements of the DfE’s sustainability and climate change strategy for education, which states:

“By 2025, all education settings will have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan”. This includes early years settings, schools, multi-academy trusts, colleges, and universities."

The Barnet School Charter is a joint commitment between the school and Barnet council:

• to work together to empower schools in becoming more sustainable
• to work together to contribute to Barnet’s ambitions of becoming a net zero borough by 2042.

The Charter will suggest actions schools can take to drive a more sustainable practice in both its operations and culture.

By working together, schools and education settings can play an active part in reducing their carbon footprint. The Charter is the first step in this journey.

Roles and responsibilities

In signing the Charter, you are committing to working with us in the following ways:

Change makers

• actively engaging the whole school community in your sustainability journey
• building capacity to take climate action across the whole school community through engaging in events, networks and training

Decision makers

• using the resources and support provided to create a roadmap for achieving the four pillars of climate action as set out in the Barnet School Strategy
• committing to updating your roadmap to reflect changes in priorities and processes, new opportunities

Implementors

• actively implementing climate actions across the four pillars as laid out in the Barnet School Strategy and your schools individual Climate Action Plan
• actively engaging in programmes and opportunities which support the implementation of your climate action plan

In turn, we are committing to working with you in the following ways:

Enablers

• directing schools and education settings to funding opportunities, programmes and resources
• providing tailored support through your sustainability journey

Conveners

• convening local networks for climate action for school and education settings
• convening workshops that support schools to take action across the four pillars by building staff/learner capacity to take action
• celebrating and sharing best practice across schools and education settings
• convening an annual workshop to reflect on progress, celebrate achievements and discuss barriers to progress

Influencers

• promoting, guiding and making information on best practice for actions across the four pillars in the Barnet Sustainability Strategy

Action lists for your school

Taking action and making sustainability changes within your school can have a wide variety of positive impacts for both your school community and the environment. There are often funding, grant and other financing opportunities that your school can apply for, which may support the implementation of your climate action plan.

View our action lists for schools

Sign the Charter

By signing the Charter you are committing to:

• joining us on our journey to becoming one of London’s most sustainable boroughs
• developing your own Climate Action Plan
• starting your journey to becoming more sustainable

You are not obligated to achieve specific goals or targets; best practice, and commitment to the roles and responsibilities will be celebrated on an ongoing basis. You may also be asked to provide support to other schools or education settings who could learn from your experience.

Sign the Barnet School Charter

If you would like further information on signing the charter, please email sustainableschools@barnet.gov.uk