Green Schools Cornwall

By project PERFECT

Published on 02 July 2022

United Kingdom

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

Truro

About this good practice

Cornwall’s schools are often very short on outside space and have a lot of hard surfaced areas. Green space has been lost or intensively managed with few opportunities for children to experience nature at school. Many older schools are within urban areas with limited space and few opportunities to make large scale changes to their grounds. Adaptation measures are needed to address impacts of climate change including flooding and urban heat rise.

The programme took experience of the Amsterdam Impulse Schools scheme and developed it for the UK context. Each school in the programme received €5,000 to design and build green infrastructure into their schoolyard. A generic lesson structure was created alongside the Council’s education team to feed into the school’s curriculum and children were encouraged through activities to understand the value of GI to health and climate change adaptation and to help design and build a scheme for their school.

Support for developing the learning process and developing the schemes was provided by the Eden Project Education Team. Each school used their funding as a match to attract more funding to expand their scheme. Children are encouraged to help build and maintain the schemes creating opportunities for leaning and to encourage good mental health and encourage a sense of ownership by children.

Resources needed

Small amounts of funding helped develop a reusable programme resource for schools. Teaching time is required to embed the practice and develop a scheme. €5,000 was made available to each school for development. New entrants are encouraged to use other funding sources, including public subscription.

Evidence of success

The schemes have all created new green spaces for each school and fostered new pride in the playground for the children. Feedback (including videos) from the children shows that they have become more involved in considering opportunities to address climate change and create and appreciate green infrastructure in the school environment. Each school has created a scheme bespoke to their needs. The schoolyards are considerably greener and have created an inclusive and green environment for pupils.

Potential for learning or transfer

The practice draws from the Amsterdam model and has been successfully translated with a modest budget and support offer. The development of the methodology and a light-touch approach allows the method to be adapted to each school’s curriculum and budget and particular needs and circumstances. The method provides a framework in which to consider the needs and challenges of the schoolyard and ways to address this through learning, scheme design and build type. The method is not tied to the UK education system and provides opportunities for adaptation. The financial model does not assume a grant regime, although this is helpful to enable match funding to take place. Costs can be drastically reduced through parents and volunteers being involved in the detailed design and build phase.