During the first two years of the GwyrddNi movement, hundreds of children and young people from GwyrddNi’s areas contributed their ideas to Community Climate Action Plans in each area. The children’s aspirations and ideas had a considerable influence on the action plans, with several areas of action developing directly from their input.
Not only was it good for the children to be part of the process, their participation was key. Thanks to them for their enthusiastic contributions!
Read more here or watch the video:
Now, children have the opportunity to act on their ideas!
We have been offering smooth-flowing, interactive education sessions for primary school children in order to raise awareness of climate change and what causes it. At the end of each session the children contribute to developing action ideas in their communities – and then have the chance to act on these ideas themselves, including visits and further learning experiences. Here’s the offer:
- An interactive Climate Session (in two parts) which creates opportunities to understand climate change and the impact it has, discuss feelings about climate change, understand what we can do about it, and start planning actions to address the climate challenge.
- Visits to local climate solutions (and beyond!).
- Opportunities for the children to develop their community ideas and implement them. This can be a ‘one-off’ action or a more long-term and comprehensive project. This (within reason!) is up to the children and we will be there to support them.
The aim is to enable the children to work together with others in their community to take action and to understand how their actions contribute to responding to climate change. The hope is that making connections with others in their community and setting out to do something to tackle the climate challenge will also help to alleviate climate anxiety.
The early signs are promising: the number of children who said they would be very confident explaining to someone else what climate change is jumped from 17% before our sessions to 84% after our sessions.
The children’s enthusiasm has been evident during our sessions, especially as they set out to gather ideas and decide how they would like to respond to the implementation areas of their area’s climate action plan.
Here’s a taste of what’s been happening and what’s coming up:
Dyffryn Ogwen
- Visits to the Ynni Ogwen community hydro scheme.
- Collaborating with partners and volunteers to develop school gardens.
- Investigating travel patterns to school and identifying and responding to travel challenges there in a more ‘active’ manner.
Dyffryn Peris
- Taking part in the Stori’r Tir project – a project for the residents of the valley to rediscover and re-own the history of their land.
- Growing food with Tyddyn Teg Farm and planting orchards with the Llanddeiniolen Nature Project.
- Tackling the Himalayan Balsalm in Llanberis with Cymdeithas Eryri.
Bro Ffestiniog
- Collecting and redistributing the school uniforms of all the schools in the area.
- Developing a biodiversity corridors scheme on the school grounds extending out into the town and valley below.
Pen Llŷn
- Visiting the Seagrass project – and making T-shirts advertising the importance of restoring Seaweed.
- Early collaboration on the bike share scheme.
Dyffryn Nantlle
- Collaborating with partners to develop school gardens.
- Mapping our habitat (see this blog about Ysgol Rhosgadfan)
While things have started to gain momentum with primary schools, we have been busy developing a suitable session for secondary school pupils. We have trialled this at Ysgol y Moelwyn, Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the school’s enthusiastic young people have been actively developing ideas, and are ready to act!
We will also collaborate with schools to develop local climate resources for the classroom.
We are currently developing education offers for adults, in order to raise awareness and to empower groups by increasing skills and having other learning experiences, in order to empower us to act in our communities. More information on the way soon!
The journey is an exciting one and we are off to a solid start! For more information, please contact Sara, our Education Officer: sara@deg.cymru