Lyfta impact: Creating a sustainable school

St Laurence C of E Primary in Nottingham

St Laurence Primary School is a one form entry school in Nottingham. Following Lyfta training, Year 2 teacher, Alex, led a plan to embed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the whole school. Among the many lessons and activities that formed part of this plan was an innovative whole-school project focused on plastic pollution on our oceans. Working within covid-19 class bubble restrictions, St Laurence held an initial whole-school activity, followed by separate class activities, which then culminated in a class-to-class sharing spiral.

The initial introductory whole-school activity involved each class using the assembly plan from Lyfta's Beachcomber storyworld. As part of the assembly, children were invited to meet Rob in Cornwall, who collects plastic waste from the beach, and uses it to create art that raises awareness of plastic pollution. They explored 360° immersive spaces including the clifftop, beach and Rob's home and clicked on rich media content to learn more about plastic pollution and recycling and discovered Rob's inspiring story through a short documentary film.

St Laurence C of E Primary in Nottingham

Individual classes then explored the themes raised, and set about designing plans for action and behavioural change. Across the school, pupils created imaginative and engaging awareness posters. Some Year 5s also thought about how they could harness the power of social media by creating powerful messages for Twitter.

Years 3 and 4 engaged in some Rob-inspired art and created posters using plastic they had found around the school.

St Laurence C of E Primary in Nottingham

The final activity involved a 'learning spiral', where each class reported 'up' to the next aged class about their learnings and ideas for action. As the school explained:

"Each class was asked to share their learning with the class above them as part of a learning spiral and our day then culminated with a school assembly where our Year 6s shared what the school had found out about plastic pollution with Mrs Barker (the head teacher) - they even offered some steps we could take in school to reduce the problem!"

St Laurence C of E Primary in Nottingham

After the day, Alex reported back that using immersive Lyfta resources to engage the whole school with the concept of sustainability had been a real success. There were even plans to implement some of the actions that the pupils had come up with:

"The assembly spiral went really well. The children were all really engaged...not only did we have some brilliant activities but some of the recommendations were excellent. I particularly liked the idea of teaching without paper and power. I think we'll try and make that idea a reality during the next half term."

St Laurence's C of E Primary have shared the outputs of their global learning plan on their website.

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