Sustainability in the Secondary Curriculum

Traffic & Travel Key ideas

For assembly ideas

– Go to www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/ enter ‘A sustainable school estate’ into the search box to find a number of assembly ideas on the issue of sustainable development. Number 4 is about ‘sustainable travel to school’.

• www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_autumn04/focuson/index.html has a number of simple interactive tasks that could be done online or printed out / adapted to a lesson. Cross-town traffic and crowded skies are the most useful.
• The Department for transport website has a ready-made travel project split into 8 sessions (could easily be less) called ‘Going Green: School travel project’. Written to support citizenship it is automatically cross-curricular and has lesson plans and supporting pupil sheets including planning a survey, analysing the survey, making policy recommendations and planning an awareness-raising campaign. Find it at www.dft.gov.uk/think/teachers/lessonplans/secondary/citizenship/ks3.
• The RAC have produced quality lesson materials for years and this is no exception. The latest package contains resources for 3 or 4 sessions, with extension ideas, based on the concept of sustainable and safe transport in the school area and for school journeys. They are available to download from www.rac.co.uk/streets-ahead/resources-for-teachers.htm. The activities are interactive and well resourced with clear instructions.
• www.everyjourneymatters.co.uk has 5 interesting lesson plans and resources that although written for KS2 could be used comfortably at KS3. Sessions covered include a basic introduction to sustainable transport followed by a number of activities about sustainable transport in London. The sessions are linked and could be delivered on an activity day ending in groups presenting a sustainable transport plan for London 2012 to the Olympic committee.
• Staffordshire county council road safety unit have put together some good-looking activities such as the crashed vehicle project, the speed project and ditch the car. Sample pages are available to see at www.larsoa.org.uk/larsoa/resources/secondary.php then buy from or email lesley.fletcher@staffordshire.gov.uk for details.
• One organisation that can provide guest speakers or work on projects with your school is sustrans (sustainable transport charity) email: schools@sustrans.org.uk. They run a variety of programmes to encourage ‘safe routes to schools’ as well as having a wealth of information on how to gain school grants to encourage cycle use, creating a school travel plan and auditing current use.