London Sustainable Schools Map

About Sustainable Schools

What is a sustainable school?

A sustainable school is a school that is guided by the principles of care:

• care for oneself (our health and well-being)
• care for others (across cultures, distances and generations)
• care for the environment (both near and far)

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has also designed a National Framework for Sustainable Schools with 8 Doorways to help schools to focus their action and thinking on sustainability (please see below).

What are the 8 Doorways?

The 8 Doorways form the National Framework for Sustainable Schools, which DCSF has designed to help schools to focus their action and thinking on sustainability. Each doorway represents a different area of school activity, where schools can develop more sustainable and efficient practices, and for each one DCSF has identified an ‘aspiration’ about where they would like schools to be by 2020.

The doorways may be approached individually or as part of a whole school action plan, though undoubtedly schools will find that many of the doorways are interconnected. For more information on the National Framework and 8 Doorways, visit: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/framework/framework_detail.cfm

How can my school work towards becoming a sustainable school?

There is a wealth of support out there for schools wanting to develop more sustainable practices, and much of it is free.

The DCSF sustainable schools site http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/ is a good place to start, and has a list of resources and tools to download.

You could also join the London Sustainable Schools Forum.

What is the London Sustainable Schools Forum?

The London Sustainable Schools Forum (LSSF) is a Forum for London schools, borough officers and NGOs to share good practice, ideas and resources across the capital. As a Forum member you will receive a regular E Bulletin with news, events, resources, and tips, and you will also receive invitations to Forum events, which are free. For more information about the Forum, and for past E Bulletins and reports of past events, visit: http://www.gos.gov.uk/gol/Environment_rural/Sustainable_schools/. To join or if you have a specific query, you can also email sustainableschools@gol.gsi.gov.uk.

What is the London Sustainable Schools Map?

The map displays information about schools in each borough relating to their practices and achievements around sustainability. You can search for schools in your borough, or another borough, linking your search to a range of criteria based on award schemes and perceived areas of strength.

Who is the map for?

The map is a resource for schools, borough officers, NGOs and others working with schools around sustainability. It has been created for London schools to promote and share their ideas and practice. You can upload information about your school, or search for what schools are doing in your area and across London.

Who created the London Sustainable Schools Map?

The map is an outcome of a pilot project by Government Office for London (GOL), working with 3 London Boroughs – Camden, Croydon and Wandsworth – to audit sustainable schools activities across those boroughs, with the aim of identifying opportunities for sharing practice between schools and building capacity in the borough.

The pilot project had 2 central aims: firstly, to create a London wide (beginning with the 3 pilot boroughs) map of sustainable schools activity; secondly, to develop working groups of schools within the pilot boroughs to share their practice and ideas around sustainability and support one another.

The development and hosting of the online map has been kindly provided by London Grid for Learning, working closely with GOL and with the input of the pilot boroughs.

What is Eco Schools?

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life. For more information visit the Eco Schools website: http://www.eco-schools.org.uk/about/.

What is LSEA?

The London Schools Environment Awards, open to all London's primary schools, were set up in 2003 to develop children’s sense of responsibility for their environment. Each year prizes are awarded to two schools in each of the 33 London boroughs. For more information visit: http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/education/lsea/index.jsp

What is Healthy Schools?

The National Healthy Schools Programme is an exciting long term initiative that helps young people and their schools to be healthy. Healthy Schools help children and young people to reach their potential by building on a solid foundation of health to do better in learning and in life. For more information visit the Healthy Schools website: http://www.healthyschools.gov.uk/

What is a School Travel Plan?

A School Travel Plan (STP) is a process whereby a school works out how it intends to make travel to and from the school by pupils, parents and teachers more sustainable and safe. This information is set out in a document that should be linked in with the school development / improvement plan. Each London Borough has its own School Travel advisor to support schools in developing their plans.

Transport for London (TFL) has also developed an accreditation scheme, to ensure a long-term commitment to sustainable travel planning in schools. With the target for all London schools to have a travel plan in place by 2009, the scheme provides a template for further development of travel plan work once the official document has been approved. For more information, visit http://www.staccreditation.org.uk/index.php or contact your local School Travel advisor.

What are the 8 ‘Strengths’?

The 8 strengths are based on the 8 ‘Doorways’ from the National Framework for Sustainable Schools.

Schools are asked to identify their own ‘areas of strength’ from this list, so it is a reflection of where they feel their strengths lie.

I would like to search for schools with particular attributes. How can I get the map to display the information I would like to see?

When you first select a borough, all schools will be displayed as pins on the map. To filter the information displayed, you can select criteria from the tick boxes along the left hand side of the map.

For example, if you would like to see all the registered Eco Schools in the borough, tick the ‘Eco Schools’ box and then click on ‘Refresh Map’. When you do this, the map will refresh and only display those schools that are registered Eco Schools.

You can also choose more than one criteria for your search. For example, you might want to see all the schools who have a School Travel Plan and also have a strength in ‘Local Well-being’. To display this information, simply tick the School Travel Plan box and the Local Wellbeing box and then click on ‘Refresh Map’. When you do this, the map will refresh and only display those schools that have a School Travel Plan AND a strength in Local Wellbeing.

If you have selected several of the tick boxes, it might be that no schools in the borough match all of those criteria. If this happens, an error message will be displayed, telling you this and prompting you to un-tick one or more boxes to widen your search.

I would like more detailed information about what a school is doing. How can I find out more?

To find out more information about the activities of a particular school, hover your cursor over one of the school pins. A school name should pop up. If you would like to know more about that school, click on the school pin – this should bring up a pop up window with the school name and address, and a button stating ‘School information’. When you click on this button, a new window will appear, with more detailed information about the school.

Why isn’t my school’s information included / up to date?

GOL originally worked with three pilot boroughs to populate their areas of the map (See section under ‘Who created the London Sustainable Schools Map?’). We are now encouraging schools and boroughs right across London to work towards populating their own areas with information about their sustainable schools activities.

If you already have a USO username and password for LGFL:

As your school's sustainability contact, you can update your school data using the following link, https://support.lgfl.org.uk/ (You will be able to keep your strengths and sustainable activities data up to date; awards data is maintained by GOL and the individual boroughs). Click on the blue padlock button and enter your USO username and password when prompted. Your school's data can be accessed using the School administration option under the LSSM button.

If you do not have a USO username and password for LGFL:

USO, or Unified Sign On, is the London Grid for Learning (LGFL) approved method for authentication across a range of web based services including email, video conferencing and anti-virus update provision.

If you, or your school's sustainability contact, needs a USO username and password, you need to make a request via your school's nominated LGFL contact. The nominanted contact will then request the USO account from Atomwide, specifying that the account is for the school's sustainability contact so that the appropriate authority can be given to the new account.

To find out who is the nominated contact for a school visit https://support.lgfl.org.uk/ and click on the red USO button and follow the instructions. This page also gives details about how to set up a nominated contact if one isn't already in place for your school.