Charity, Energy Heroes, offers support and inspiration to help teachers embed energy and climate education into the primary curriculum

Our prime minister, Rishi Sunak, made five grand pledges at the start of this year, the first being “we will halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security”. But where is the plan of action? What is the government going to do to help our people? What plans are in place to support the 15 million people – over half the households in the UK – who are now in fuel poverty as of January 2023?

Energy Heroes – is stepping in to help people address some of the challenges we currently face over fuel poverty, climate change and the cost of living. As well as offering free assemblies and workshops to support teachers in educating pupils about Global Warming and the importance of energy efficiency, this Charity is running free online training sessions for primary teachers. The latest of these focused on how to effectively teach about climate change and energy through the current primary maths curriculum.

For more information about the elements of the Energy Heroes programme- click here

Sunak’s pledges failed to mention the climate crisis

Within Sunak’s speech and the all-important pledges, there was zero mention of the climate crisis, environmental collapse or the root causes of the energy crisis and the impact that our fossil fuel dependency is having on the planet. The sweeping promises ignore the biggest problems we face as humanity and offer no light at the end of the tunnel.

I have hope that the world will be better for our children, but with climate change accelerating faster than science has predicted, there is a dangerous and uncertain future ahead. Globally, approximately one billion children, nearly half of the world’s children, live in countries at extremely high risk of “climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses”. There is not a child in the world who is safe from the impacts of climate change.

2022 saw record-breaking heat waves in the UK and across the globe. It was the warmest year ever recorded in the 364-year Central England Temperature (CET) series that started in 1659 (the world’s longest instrumental record of temperature. Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Thailand and Australia were some of the countries to experience catastrophic, unprecedented flooding, and wildfires continued out of control around the world.

We are facing a looming potential global food security crisis as farmers struggle to save their crops from extreme weather events such as flooding and heatwaves, and drought has been prevalent, left in the wake of the extreme heat throughout the year.

Educational reform is needed

Sunak talks about improving education by providing basic maths courses for an ever-changing world, while omitting the largest threat that faces all of the younger generations today. It is time we offer our young people a little more than this in order to increase their chances of a safe and prosperous future.

What we need is a swift reform of the education system and curriculum, where the children today are taught knowledge and skills that they will need in the real future we are heading into. Knowledge to address questions such as:

• What is the climate crisis and how has it been caused?
• What can we do to halt and reverse the changes?
• What impacts are likely to be felt here and around the world? and
• How do we overcome the struggles that we will be facing?

The adults of the future need to know how to protect nature and their environment, how to harvest and treat water to drink, how to grow their own food, how to conserve energy and harness it from natural sources, how to build and fix resources, and how to communicate and collaborate with their communities.

Energy Heroes

There are many groups and organisations that have compiled and created comprehensive curriculums, aiming to educate pupils about our changing world, the changing climate and the future that is here already.

One such organisation is the Charity Energy Heroes, whose FREE program demonstrates how key stage 2 maths can be taught through the exploration of local data associated with climate change and energy use. Through this context-rich programme we can make school and learning effective and relevant, provide a tool to understand the current world and develop skills to thrive in it, and give our children the best chance of being prepared for their lives ahead.

These lessons have never been so important, and with so many young people now living in fuel poverty, every penny that we can help them save at home could have a substantial improvement for the families at home.

The prime minister and this government are failing our children and the world. It is up to us to deliver the education we know is necessary.

To find out more about Energy Heroes click here.

To find out how to book a visit from the Energy Heroes team to your school, please email hello@energyheroes.org.uk