On Tuesday 4 November the Student Sustainability Ambassadors met with members of the Staff Sustainability Committee to review the Sustainability MER (Monitoring, Evaluation and Review process). Ordinarily MERs are run by senior TGS staff but the Sustainability strand of the school's Development Plan lends itself to significant student engagement so this time, the MER was given over to the students themselves. 

The Sustainability Ambassadors collected data to help answer questions such as Are opportunities for engaging with and understanding sustainability embedded in the curriculum across all key stages? and How is the school community demonstrating action on sustainability and climate goals? Their summary report was shared with the Staff Sustainability Committee and the meeting was an opportunity to discuss the findings and recommendations drawn from the Student Ambassadors' analysis. 

The staff committee were very impressed by the scope and depth of the report and it provoked some interesting discussions on how we move our approach to sustainability and climate action forward with the whole school community in a fresh and engaging way.

The students were then joined by alum Talia, who is a Geography graduate from the University of Cambridge with an interest in climate data, ecological justice, and more-than-human geographies. Over the past two years, Talia has worked with SOS-UK to coordinate climate action in schools, support curriculum reform, and deliver workshops that centre youth voice in sustainability. 

The student team were praised for their highly professional approach and the quality of the report. In discussion with Talia, they discussed some alternative approaches to promoting positive action and the students were inspired to consider their next steps in taking the recommendations for the MER forward as a new team takes over their roles later this year.

The team will be taking the report to the Strategic Leadership Team in the week beginning 10 November. Once the report is finalised we will share it with the whole school community. There are some exciting developments to roll out over the next few months so look out for the timeline and how to get involved via your tutors and school bulletins!