Sustainability Debate- COP26
Written by Rachel Bell, Project Manager- Education Works
Continuing on from COP26 and in the interest of sustainability and climate awareness, students from Sarah Bonnell School took part in a climate debate, supported by volunteers from one of our alliance companies. The event was insightful and productive, and extremely relatable for the students. Year 8 and year 11 students from the student council attended the workshop, as sustainability is on their agenda and they have a heightened awareness of the topic overall.
The debates took place in person at Sarah Bonnell School, which was such a refreshing experience after countless virtual workshops over the past 18 months. The students were introduced to volunteers whose roles had a sustainability aspect to them, for example, ESG or renewable energy. The volunteers shared their organisation’s commitment to ESG to give the students a better understanding of their strategy and aims as an organisation.
Four teams of students debated environmental motions which included fast fashion, meat consumption, travel restrictions and pollution tax. Energy in the room was high, and feedback from the students was positive:
“I enjoyed working with my peers, creating solutions and debating with each other, as well as listening to the other debates.”
Students were engaged, excited and appreciative to hear from the volunteers:
“I learnt a lot about the consequences and benefits of implementing the carbon tax on countries like HICs and LICs.”
Feedback from volunteers was positive and highly encouraging also, with one saying:
“It was a wholly positive and well-run event (top marks in all categories). The students were engaging, sparky, confident and interested in the topic. They showed good skills in questioning the way the question was worded and the presented facts – researching and coming up with more of their own.”
Thank you so much to the team of volunteers who supported, your time and expertise took the debates to another level and volunteering in person had an extremely positive impact on engagement. Hopefully your experience will get the ball rolling for more face to face with east London students in the upcoming months.
The theme of sustainability will now be part of the Education Works workshop offer if any other volunteers are interested in the future!
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