World First! Certified Carbon Literacy Teachers Announced.

The First Certified Carbon Literacy Teachers in the World were announced in an Awards Ceremony, dedicated to honour their historic achievement.

Holme Grange School in Wokingham, United Kingdom, embarked on an ambitious initiative, during the Covid 19 Lockdown in the Summer of 2020. Their mission: To upskill ALL their teaching staff to teach a cross-curriculum climate curriculum to an exceptionally high standard.

Melanie Harwood, Co-Founder of eduCCate Global explains, "Schools that sign up to achieve the eduCCate Global Bronze and Silver Awards want to ensure their teaching staff receive the very best teacher training related to the delivery of climate literacy. We deliver a M.A.T.T. Framework (Mitigation, Adaptation, Transition, Transformation)  to ensure that the basics of climate literacy are covered to an exceptionally high standard. Our aim is for schools like Holme Grange, with a leadership intent on delivering the leaders of tomorrow, to then level up to Transition and Transformation by taking part in our Gold and Platinum Awards.  When Claire Robinson was told that the Carbon Literacy Teacher Training would be made available to her school, she did not hesitate to put forward her team."

Headteacher, Claire Robinson explains, "Our journey with EduCCate Global enables us to work alongside like-minded people to make a positive change, to our lives and to that of those of the future. The Carbon Literacy Teacher Course was outstanding and has given us, as a School, the knowledges, skills, understanding and confidence to build a curriculum across our school with Sustainability at the core and the Global Goals threaded throughout.

By September 2020 all staff, teaching and non-teaching, completed both the eduCCate Global Bronze and Silver Awards, which included the Climate Change Teacher Course, the How To Teach Climate Change Inset Training and The Carbon Footprint Buster Challenge. When we took everything up a notch, I told Melanie Harwood that I intended to remap my school's entire curriculum and  and we had a team of Sustainability & Climate Change Lead Teachers who had all completed a suite of training to become accredited to teach Mitigation and Adaptation.

The Certified Carbon Literacy Teacher Training opportunity was the next step in our process and this has enabled us to ensure Sustainability is at the very core of our School curriculum. It is an honour to be part of the celebration and to have engaged with like minded individuals to complete the course, as together we can work to find solutions and have a positive impact on the future now!

Our pupils are engaged and feel empowered as a result of the work being undertaken as a direct result of this training. We are actively working in partnership with other schools and building on our local, national and international links to ensure this is no longer an ‘optional extra’ but an essential part of every school’s work. To be the first school in the UK and the World to have staff trained in this way is a privilege and a responsibility we do not undertake lightly. We embrace the opportunity to continue to seek solutions with and inspire those around us to do so too.

Professor Petra Molthan-Hill, Professor of Sustainable Management and Education for Sustainable Development, Academic Lead for UN PRME in NBS and Co-Chair UN PRME Working Group on Climate Change & the Environment, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, delivered the unique Carbon Literacy Teacher Training in partnership with eduCCate Global, over a four week period from November to December 2020.  "We designed this training for Business Schools, Universities and other organisations in the private sector and when I was approached to deliver it to a school, by the Co-Founder of eduCCate Global, Melanie Harwood,  I was excited to trial the delivery to the Holme Grange School teachers.  I am so proud to announce that these are now the very First Certified Carbon Literacy Teachers, in the World!  I will be working with the eduCCate Global Team on further research and on the development of a unique online Carbon Literacy Teacher Training, so that we can scale this CPD out to all schools throughout the world, as this teacher training is crucial now."