The innovative Ready, Steady, Green programme was designed to educate Year 6 pupils on low carbon and net-zero careers, while encouraging pupils to consider their own impact on the environment; and has achieved an amazing impact on local school children in St Helens.
The programme has achieved remarkable results for the 2022-23, engaging with 33 classes and impacting 1034 children. Presented in an age-appropriate and sensitive way, the programme ran over a half day, aligning with KS2 learning outcomes in geography and science, through interactive sessions and workshops.
Ready, Steady, Green aims to encourage environmental consciousness and push young minds to explore the careers available to them in the low carbon sectors. As part of the legacy programme, each class was given information about rewilding a small area of their school and were given wildflower seeds to encourage biodiversity in the school environment.
Rachel Wellens, Education, Events and Partnership Manager at St Helens Chamber, explained: “The programme was carefully designed to showcase how dynamic the low carbon and net zero sectors really are, and the career opportunities available in St Helens.
“We wanted to inspire the children and educate them on the impact they can have locally, whilst empowering them to improve their life choices; working to create an inclusive economy and promote gender equality”.
The participating schools were able to enter a competition to win a ‘bug hotel’, which gave the schools an incredible opportunity to send in their rewilding projects and be judged by St Helens Chamber’s Education Team.
A big congratulations is be given to Eccleston Mere Primary, who won first prize for their resilience to start over after the heatwave hit St Helens. They have shown clear steps to making their school environment more welcoming to local wildlife and most importantly showcased incredible enthusiasm and passion to the Ready, Steady, Green Programme!
Miss Kirkman, Eccleston Mere’s Year 6 teacher, said: “The national curriculum was written many years ago, and it doesn’t cater for the growing concerns over climate change. The Ready, Steady, Green Programme increases the limited knowledge the children had on the environment and climate change and works to inspire and empower them to make those changes.
“Pupils very much enjoyed the Programme and gained a clear picture of the causes and possible effects of the challenges faced by their local environment and that of the wider world. Most importantly, they learnt a variety of small practical actions that they can take to have a positive impact on their futures. The seed bombs and seed pencils gave them an immediate start to making changes and created further interest that lasted beyond the Programme.”
Due to the success of the project, St Helens Chamber are looking to partner with local suppliers of modern technologies for the future to be able to offer this programme across all schools in the Borough.
The programme is looking for an exclusive corporate sponsor for the 2023-2024 academic year and the Chamber are encouraging anyone with an interest to get in touch with educationservices@sthelenschamber.com.
