Sussex Green Living offer a wide range of educational sessions from school assemblies and classroom sessions to full day roadshow events. We have a carousel of environmental topics that we can cover and we tailor them for any age group from Early Years to Sixth Form.
Our environmental education programme promotes Education for Sustainable Development, STEAM and Sustainable Development Goals – Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13 Climate Action, Goal 14 Life Below Water and Goal 15 Life on Land. Curriculum links – global citizenship, geography, English, science and life skills.
This year we’re asking, “Can airlines please tell us the truth – the whole truth – about the impacts of aviation? Is it not one of the biggest polluters of our planet?” Like cigarette packaging and advertising, and in a similar way to food allergy advice, shouldn’t plane tickets have health warnings for us and the planet?
Ashington Youth Club
Well what a year 2022 was for Sussex Green Living. As we reflect on the last year and plan for the future and 2023, we thought it was worth taking a moment to share some of our achievements…
Demand for Sussex Green Living environmental education services in schools and public events has never been higher, so much so that requests for our help vastly outstripped the grants we had been awarded to be able to deliver the work in schools.
When thinking about living an environmentally sustainable life, the first thing most people think about is the 3Rs: ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. As part of Sussex Green Living’s education outreach programme, we initiated a School Challenge looking at how you can reduce waste by repairing.
Our school challenge for Horsham District Schools was supported by a Horsham District Community Lottery Grant, a donation from a Horsham councillor and kindly judged by Horsham artist, Morag Warrack.
The challenge invited students to learn about repair cafés, what they do and how they help reduce waste on our planet. There are items that could be repaired but often people don’t have the skillset to make repairs. Repair Cafés are run by volunteers who have both a passion and the expertise to repair electrical, mechanical and textile items. The premise is that you can take along your items and for a small donation, they will try to fix them while you stay, watch and hopefully learn a new skill at the same time.
Education has always formed a big part of the Sussex Green Living mission. In fact, it is where Carrie Cort started out, as a network of families learning about nature, the environment and ways that everyone can live a more sustainable life.
During the first lockdown in 2020 many people felt isolated. Sussex Green Living (SGL) thought it was important to connect people and to continue its work improving the environment. SGL’s Carrie Cort organised weekly online Horsham Climate Café events. Some of these attracted over 150 people, both local and from further afield. One of the aims of the café was to introduce people ‘virtually’ from the same villages and this is when the seed of Billingshurst environmental group BilliGreen was planted.
The group was started by Mela Davidson and Melanie Holliker who both wanted to create a network that boosted the local community and had a positive impact on the local environment.
Sussex Green Living’s Youth Eco Forum is a young persons’ environmental group where we speak about current news and creatively demonstrate climate activism in many forms. The YEF was founded […]
Thanks to our Tesco Community Grant we were able to take our Bright New Futures Roadshow to St Mary’s CofE Primary School in Pulborough on the 22nd July . This […]
Thanks to a Tesco Community grant on 8th July we took our Bright New Future Roadshow to Kingslea School in Horsham where we worked with 60 children from Year Two […]
Press Release – Solar for Schools App wins Innovate UK grant
Students calling for action against climate change will have access to an App that will help them in the fight to deliver a lower carbon future in the UK.
The App is being developed by Solar Options for Schools, which won funding this week (4 November 2020) from UK Innovate in the latest round of the £10 million Sustainable Innovation Fund. The fund is intended to help the UK rebuild after the effects of COVID-19.
The Solar for Schools App will deliver an innovative interactive App, which will enable secondary students to learn about energy, electricity, and climate. It will offer learning to all students, irrespective of their social-economic status, being accessible on both android and apple phones. Read more
Here’s What You Can Do.
In partnership with TerraCycle, a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials, Sussex Green Living is now working with over fourteen parishes and schools to divert billions of waste resources from landfills.
Plastics are extremely durable and cheap to manufacture, making them almost impossible to overlook for manufacturers when it comes to product design and packaging. But their durability comes at the cost of slow degradation rates in the wild; upwards of 300 to 1000 years.
With about 380 tonnes of it being produced every year, by the time the plastic we have disposed of today begins to degrade the quantity in landfills, oceans and everywhere else will have become totally unmanageable. That is, unless, we can turn the tides.
Bisphenol A has been observed to disrupt physiological levels of sex hormones, negatively affect thyroid hormone gene expression in humans, and cause other detrimental effects. In marine life, issues with plastic entanglement and ingestion have been observed at a broad scale. Read more
*** UNDER A WEEK TO GO…***
…to the online launch of E.Y.E.’s 1st Virtual EYE Eco-Summit, on the 2nd July at 10:00.
The social distancing has led to the postponement of the 13th Worthing and Adur Eco-Summit gathering. I know that your participation in the event was booked into your calendar, and that you might take an interest in our virtual event. As always we look forward to your involvement and support with our future events.
EYE have taken the initiative to collate and post a selection of workshops, to keep our keen eco-learners busy. Kindly provided by some of our supporters who were able to do so, in these challenging times we currently find ourselves in.
The 1st Virtual EYE Eco-Summit will be available via YouTube. Read more
Inspiring environmental art competition appeals for children and young people to get involved over holidays and the summer term. Thanks to a grant from The Boltini Trust, Sussex Green Living and the South Downs National Park Trust, which is the official charity of South Downs National Park, have developed this “Clean Up & Create” a Bright New Future competition for 5-16 year olds in Sussex and Hampshire.
Julie Fawcett, Chair of the South Downs National Park Trust, said “A key focus for the South Downs National Park Trust is to engage young people with this amazing natural asset on their doorstep with all its beautiful landscapes and wildlife.
“This competition offers a great way for children to get creative and think about ways we can conserve and enhance our environment in the years ahead. Young people are the future custodians of national gems such as the South Downs and this is a fantastic way to inspire them”
The aim is to encourage young people to design some artwork with a powerful message to raise awareness of the environment and represent the theme of a bright new future they want for the world.
There are two categories to choose from in each age group: Read more
‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’
Educational competition for schools and children working from home!
Sussex Green Living in partnership with the South Downs National Park have just launched an educational competition called ‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’. It has been designed to provide a platform for raising awareness about the environment, littering and changes we could make to build a bright new future. The challenge is for 5 to 16 year olds to design a poster and or a piece of eco art and associated message, enable them to learn, have fun and get creative around the world they want. There are 16 x £150 prizes to be won!
Imagination, dream and reimagine a Bright New Future
We are in the process of adapting our existing environmental education programme, The Future We Want, in light of the current health, economic and environmental crisis. Through our Bright New Futures programme, schools will be able to book free assemblies, lessons and eco council action planning sessions. In this updated programme, the schools will have the option to choose from the following themes
· NEW – Bright New Future Through The Arts
· NEW – Bright New Future Tell Us A Story
· NEW – Grow Your Own Revolution
· Love Clothes and Planet
· Energy Forever
· Plastic-Free Sea
(While we are preparing to launch these workshops, children and young people are invited to get creative from home and take part in our Clean up and create a Bright New Future competition, learn more here) Read more
Come and join our ‘The Future We Want’ Billingshurst Carnival Procession
This is your invitation to come, have fun and share your greener living message with our Sussex Green Living carnival procession. For a second year running we are taking a procession in the Billingshurst carnival, run by the Billingshurst Rotary on Sunday 24th June. Last year about 30 local people of all ages and two eco vehicles joined us, learn more here. This years Rotary theme is Heroes and Villains, our theme is The Future We Want – Greener Living! Read more
This workshop is a fun, informative and practical session, showing the synergy between biodiversity, environmental protection and upcycling. Led by Carrie Cort the founder of Sussex Green Living, this is one in a series of workshops Carrie offers.
In this workshop we generate ideas which inspire our children to become the next generation of green champions. In turn these ideas can help them make decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally. This will improve the quality of life now, reducing damage to the planet in the future. The workshop includes some hands on creative upcycling for the garden, e.g. butterfly hibernation boxes from TetraPaks, owl boxes out of old wellington boots, bird feeders out of plastic milk bottles. Subjects: Science, PSHE, Art & Design and Citizenship.
Learn more about the Wildlife Eco Warrior session we ran for Annington Homes at Gamlingay Primary School in Bedfordshire…..
We’re really excited to tell you about another sustainable solution for schools and this one might win your school £1,000!
Now in it’ sixth year, the PA’s Raspberry Pi competition 2018 is offering three £1,000 prizes for teams from primary and secondary schools, and sixth forms and colleges.
This year’s theme is Sustainability. The challenge is to use the Raspberry Pi – a credit-card-size yet highly capable computer – to invent something that will help ‘save the planet’. Read more
We are delighted to share our ‘The Future We Want – LESS C02’ Sustainable Solutions for Schools Programme. This programme saves schools money, makes money and reduces C02 emissions. We also offer FREE whole school assemblies and lessons for KS2 focusing on Energy Eco Warriors or Textile Eco Warriors.
Bought to you by Sussex Green Living in partnership with Bags of Support an ethical West Sussex based textile recycling company. Our mission to financially help schools, provide environmental education, lessen carbon footprints and the effects of climate change. Read more
Children from all over West Sussex competed in our Eco Beast Sculpture competition in July, culminating in a public display at the family event ‘Funday Sunday’ in Horsham Park.
The four winning schools – Warninglid, Georgian Gardens, William Penn School and Upper Beeding – enjoyed their prizes on 8th, 11th, 12th and 13th September. Read more
Eco Beast Competition
Eco Beast Sculptures migrated from across West Sussex and took over a marquee in Horsham Park at ‘Funday Sunday’ on Sunday 9th July. Children from all over the county had wonderful fun making Eco Beast Sculptures out of waste resources. The best sculptures from schools and children’s uniformed groups formed a stunning public exhibition at this family event. Read more
The Future We Want – LESS C02 campaign was launched by Sussex Green Living in June 2017 at the Billingshurst Carnival. This programme was developed as a result of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corp training (more information below) and a WWF competition. In March 2017 Carrie, the founder of Sussex Green Living, was shortlisted as the WWF Earth Hour Community Hero. At the same WWF Earth Hour Parliamentary reception, Adam her 9 year old son was announced as a winner in the WWF KS2 The Future We Want – Climate Challenge poster competition, with his Climate Cartoon.
Carrie and Adam decided that they need to give future generations the knowledge and a voice to encourage everyone to care better for the planet which sustains us. Read more
Eco Beast Sculpture Competition – Green Inspiration Through the Arts
Sussex Green Living in partnership with Horsham Festival and West Sussex County Council Waste Prevention team, are delighted to launch an Eco Beast Sculpture competition, open to children and young people in West Sussex.
Our aim
This exciting competition aims to inspire young sculptors Read more
Energy Matters workshop
The E.Y.E. (Eco Young and Engaged) Project ran its first Eco Summit at the Weald and Downland Museum just outside Chichester yesterday. Previously they have run nine Eco Summits in the Worthing and Adur area. We were asked to deliver three Energy Matters workshops at the Summit for Your Energy Sussex. Read more