Whole School Approach to Education & Sustainability

A 2.5 day workshop that explores the definition of sustainability and what it means for a school to be committed to sustainability.

The planet and its people face a crisis of unprecedented scale, urgency and complexity and education is part of the problem – but also part of the solution. The current economic, environmental, and social trends are dangerously unsustainable. What contribution can and must the education sector play in responding to the impending crisis?

Educating for a sustainable world is a whole school approach to education and it is supported by the United Nations under human rights and social justice. By demystifying sustainability, this workshop will help to:

develop an understanding of educational approaches to sustainability.
develop specific pedagogical knowledge and approaches to extend learning in the field of sustainability.
create an action plan to increase school-wide approaches to sustainability.

Register

Who is this course for?

This workshop is designed to meet the demonstrated, differentiated needs of experienced teachers and school leaders, including Heads of School and Bursars/Operations Managers, who wish to examine teaching and learning and schools as organisations, through the lens of sustainability education.

Conceptual Understandings

We will explore the following concepts:

We all have responsibilities as planetary citizens, because we are all interconnected in a diverse global ecosystem
Nurturing changemakers is at the heart of the IB educational mission “to create a better and more peaceful world”
Systems thinking helps us explore our interdependence and interconnectedness
Education for a sustainable world educates specific skills and competencies, using pedagogy that leads to planetary citizenship
School leaders can be the designers, stewards and teachers of an education focused on sustainability
Maintaining a conscious focus on Individual and collective wellbeing is an essential part of being a changemaker.
Futures thinking helps us shape our plans to create a sustainable future and the role we play in achieving our goal.

Facilitation

Available online or face-to-face, the workshop is divided into ten 1.5 hour sessions over the course of two and a half days. Attendance at all ten sessions is mandatory to receive a SusEd certificate of completion. This workshop can be delivered as a full 3-18 continuum workshop or targeting specific programmes. The guidance will be the same for all programmes.

Workshop Dates:

January 2025 & March 2025 (TBC)

Sessions:

2.5 day, made up of ten 90 minute sessions.

Course Content

Inquiry 1: How are we connected to the world?
Inquiry 2: What’s the problem?
Inquiry 3: Education: How does education fit into this landscape?
Inquiry 4: What form of leadership is being asked for?
Inquiry 5: Thinking & Learning: How do we think? How do we Learn?
Inquiry 6: How do we connect?
Inquiry 7: What does the world need from us?
Inquiry 8: The how of education: what should we teach and learn?
Inquiry 9 What Stakeholders do I need to involve to make my school and teaching practice?
Inquiry 10: What do we want to happen next? Reflection and Sharing.

Pricing

Fee: €695 (excluding VAT)

The standard booking fee of €695 applies to all bookings made up to 10 days in advance of the start of a workshop. After that, a €100 surcharge will be levied and all bookings made 10 days or less before a workshop will be charged at €795 (plus VAT, if applicable). .

Facilitators

Chris Wright

COURSE LEADER
Leader as teacher: I have always felt that it is a great privilege, as well as responsibility, to be a school leader. I very much believe that ‘schooling’ is about human flourishing, developing the sense of ‘self’ and the nurturing of character. The role of education is to help students to know themselves and prepare them to thrive and be a responsible contributor in a fast changing and challenging world. My approach to leadership is grounded in two key beliefs. Firstly, I believe that all children have ability and all can achieve. As a leader my role is to create a climate for success and to make a difference to children by providing all with what he or she needs to succeed. I do not ask ‘how intelligent is this child?’, but rather, in what ways is this child intelligent – for all children are intelligent and they are intelligent in many different ways. Therefore I have high expectations for all students, understanding that each child’s intellectual ability can grow and that anything is possible with hard work and dreams. My role is to excite curiosity, to expect all to achieve and to get everyone to a high floor with no ceiling (‘everyone proficient, many advanced’). My second belief is that expert leaders (to borrow a phrase from John Hattie) and teachers make a difference. Excellence in teaching is the single most powerful influence on achievement. Education has the power to transform lives.
I live in the UK, although I travel widely on IB business (Chair of Evaluation visits, Team Leader & Workshop Leader). I have been a Head of three schools – the first an international school in the Middle East where I introduced the IB Diploma Programme, and the other two national UK schools. I have also worked in the tertiary sector in education research and teacher education. Currently I work at a school system level as Director of Education for a school company that runs 45 schools.
Wieneke Maris

SUSED LEADER
For Wieneke, her love for nature and sustainability has been the green thread through her life. After her Master studies in Forest and Nature Conservation at Wageningen University, she went on to do the International Teaching Training at Utrecht University. As a geography teacher and IB MYP subject coordinator, she aims to integrate sustainability systematically into education. To this end she is active as a board member for Teachers for Climate and the Dutch Academy for Sustainability Education (NADO). In 2019 she was awarded Sustainable Teacher of the Year for her work inside and outside the classroom. The past school year, she travelled through Europe searching for inspirational examples of education for sustainability. As an IB workshop leader she enjoys supporting teachers in making the IB mission of education for a better world reality.
“I believe the IB provides us with the perfect framework to holistically include sustainability intentionally in all aspects of education; the curriculum, our pedagogy and our school environment and culture. Education has a big role to play in addressing the ecological and climate crises our world faces today, it is a journey of making meaning.”
Andrew Watson

SUSED CEO
Andrew specialises in the conceptual design and leadership of new and existing schools, leading professional development, and developing global education initiatives, including The Education & Sustainability Leadership Programme, in partnership with Cambridge and Cape Town Universities, and the Education in Conflict & Post-Conflict Contexts (ECPCC), in partnership with United World College, Mostar, where he served on the Governing Board between 2010 and 2016. He is the co-author of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Leadership Pathway and a regular contributor to literature on education and sustainability. He has since worked with schools and government agencies in countries around the world including Albania, Armenia, Israel, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, The Netherlands and Venezuela.