Education

Sincerely inspirational (currently virtual) assemblies and lessons for your school prepared and delivered by Carrie Cort, West Sussex County Council Waste Prevention Advisor, Eco School Assessor, Guinness World Record holder and Climate Reality Leader (trained by Al Gore – An Inconvenient Truth and leading climate change scientists).

Less C02, less plastic, less waste and a lot more awesome!

Carrie, the founder of Sussex Green Living is able to offer free of charge, as part of our “Bright New Futures programme a range of assemblies, lessons and workshops, here are few topics available:

  • Visit by our Inspiration Eco Station, a retrofitted 1974 milk float with displays and gamesFront of Eco station focusing on eco home and garden, kinder clothes and or recycling
  • Visit from our Bright New Future Roadshow, learn more here
  • Upcycling to grow food and give wildlife a home
  • Recycle and Recreate for the Planet
  • Makers Magic learn how to reuse materials as an art resource
  • Love your Clothes and Planet
  • Oceans – plastics pollution and solutions
  • These topics are supported by primary school videos found in our gallery here.

To book a school visit contact Carrie on or call 07768 212833.

Outdoor education

We strongly believe to solve the climate and ecological crisis it is essential people of all ages love and appreciate the planet and natural world. Those learning outdoors develop their creativity, problem-solving, independence, confidence and more. Playing in natural spaces supports a child’s sense of self, allowing children to recognise their independence alongside an interdependence and connectedness with their ecological worlds. So ad hoc we organise outdoor education events and workshops. See a wonderful gallery of happy young people who attended our solar, windturbine and woodworking workshops here.

Join our Youth Eco Forum

In June 2020 we launched our Youth Eco Forum, a weekly Zoom meeting for young people 11+ where they can discuss worries, hopes and share ideas and actions. The group is being guided by a young lady, Catherine who grew up in Horsham and is keen to help develop a meeting place for local young environmentalists to gather, discuss and connect for an hour of planet-friendly chat. Learn more here

You can read the Youth Eco Forums first exciting Ezine here.

Grants for schools

The South Downs National Park offer grants to help schools access environmental education, learn more here.

You will find a list of brilliant environmental education resources, many totally free, for primary and secondary schools here.

TESTIMONAL

“A huge thank you for bringing your Bright New Future Roadshow to Bolnore Primary School. The year 2 children had the most inspiring, educational and fun day learning about the looking after the environment. The children have continued to say “can we do this again tomorrow?” which is the biggest compliment! The day was full of engaging activities and most importantly, had a strong message (small steps to a greener planet). The children loved the mobile woodland theatre and enjoyed performing their own songs and stories. They also enjoyed learning about food chains and seeing the many items from the woodland you brought with you. We loved the carousel of activities such as learning about eco houses and gardens from the float display. It was lovely to finish the day with a woodland walk, a song and a story. This day was incredibly memorable and we loved spending the day outside! Thank you”.

From Jess Blanch, Year 2 teacher at Bolnore School

“Carrie is a passionate speaker on environmental issues and we were exceptionally lucky to have her visit us at school. She somehow managed to engage children from different age groups – from nine years old to fourteen – as she taught us about various green topics such as the plague of plastics, environmental pollution and the importance of our oceans. Carrie’s enthusiasm for all things ecological was really inspiring and she maintained everyone’s interest by continually asking questions and challenging what we thought we knew about the future of this planet. She also described the ways to reduce our impact on the environment, from recycling to buying sustainably to reusing. We were taught about the impact that we, as human beings, have on the planet, but also about the differences that we can make on an individual level.

After the presentation, Carrie held an interactive workshop with just the Junior Eco Club and me, along with our headmistress, and how we as a school can start improving things ourselves and campaigning on green issues. It certainly feels as though her visit has provided the school with firmer and hopefully long lasting foundations on which to build a wider consciousness of climate change and its impact on everyone and everything on earth. Since the visit, I know that the Junior School has improved its environmental-based curriculum in line with Carrie’s mission to educate young people”.

From Flora from Our Lady of Sion Junior School and now an active member of our Youth Eco Forum

Other testimonials can be read here.

Tri-fold environmental education brochure (outer)

Download (2 MB)

Tri-fold environmental education brochure (inner)

Download (2 MB)

We work in partnership with other organisations who can help your school raise money, save money and reduce your carbon emissions. These include:

Bags of Support textile recycling diverting clothes from landfill and incineration and raising money for your school. We work in partnership with West Sussex ethical multi-award winning Bags of Support, they pay 50p/kg for textiles (30% more than Phil the Bag and 20% more than Bags 2 School).  Their end beneficiaries are orphans in Uganda and Romanian. This links with our ‘Love Clothes and Planet’ assembly and lessons. Bags of Support is a West Sussex ethical textile recycling initiative. They reduce the volume of textiles sent to landfill, raise money for schools and provide financial support and clothing donations to orphanages in Uganda and Romania. To arrange for a textile collection contact , call 01403 710498 or 07917 797084.

Ashden LESS C02 energy efficiency programme which saves on average £2,650 and 10 tonnes of CO2 in your first year. The programme starts in September each year, it includes four workshops for school staff, typically the head, business manager and one session is aimed at embedding energy efficiency in the curriculum so ideally a teacher. The four workshops are spread throughout the academic year, 11-15 schools in one are are needed to make the programme viable*. This links well with our Energy Forever assembly and lessons.

Solar for Schools offer schools a free and no risk way of maximising the solar on their school through a Community Benefit Society that raises money from the local community and socially minded funders. Schools provide the roof space for the panels and pay for any electricity from the solar panels that they actually use, at a pre-agreed, low starting price. Contact Shannon or call 07710483123 to learn more. We are looking for clusters of schools in Sussex to enable purchasing with economies of scale.

Single-use plastic recycling in partnership with us. Learn more here.

*We are happy to present these sustainable solutions at locality heads meetings which helps to recruit schools and share these solutions.

NOTE: 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.

Teacher testimonial:

“Carrie Cort has run two morning workshops for Yr 3 and Yr 4 and one morning for Yr 5 and Yr 6, the workshop themes were ‘Dreaming of a Healthy Planet’, ‘The Future We Want’ and ‘Green Inventors’. Through a combination of engaging hands on activities, informative PowerPoints and videos, children have been introduced to Green issues that affect them. The workshops have really made the children reflect on the impact modern life has on the environment and the need to change behaviour to protect their future. They produced work, including a letter to their M.P., which gave them a chance to voice their concerns.”
Mrs Constable – Teacher of Yr 3 and Yr 4

Quotes from children attending the workshops:

“I learnt about an inventor who at 17 came up with the idea of an incredible ship which sucks plastic out of the sea, by 22 his idea was out there helping clear up the sea plastic. That really inspired me”

“I now know that people are making incredible new things out of rubbish, actually I now call it waste resources”.

“I did not realise that humans are using so many resources and that there is a limited supply, now I really understand why we must use less and recycle”.

“I loved inventing a wind powered car out of a Pringle tube, 4 CDs, 2 sticks, 1 straw and a balloon”.

Other testimonials can be read here.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

Nelson Mandela
Former President Of South Africa