10th November 2009

Durham calling Copenhagen - "40:20 - Just Do It!"The Durham schools' challenge to international negotiators

Twenty pupils from Durham's schools will go face-to-face with negotiators in Copenhagen via a live video link during the critical last days of the climate change Summit. From County Hall, Durham on Thursday 17th December, they will be calling on Copenhagen to agree binding international targets and timetables to reduce carbon emissions.

With the help of Climate Durham, the pupils are presenting a vision of living in a low carbon world (40:20 Just Do It!. To 'secure our future', they will be proposing practical local action. The two teams will comprise pupils from Framwellgate, Durham Johnston, St Leonard's R.C., Gilesgate Sixth Form Centre and Durham Federation and a Copenhagen team lead by north east M.E.P. Fiona Hall, German M.E.P Rebecca Harms and Gemma Bone from the UK Youth Climate Coalition.

"We will be presenting a challenge on behalf of all young people in County Durham. We say adopt a target of 40% reductions in emissions by 2020 to give us a fighting chance of avoiding climate chaos" says Anjali Piette from St Leonard's School.

Bethany Lilly from Durham Johnston says "Our message to Copenhagen is '40:20 - Just Do It'. As the generation that will have to live with climate change, we want to prove that local action will secure our future. Negotiators, M.E.P.s and Heads of State need the confidence to know that challenging targets can lead to effective action such as we are putting forward." Janie Bickersteth from Climate Durham says: "This is a really exciting opportunity for young people to connect with an international event and make it real for them. They are keen to prove that local action can beat climate change. Indeed, they will be asking for Climate Durham's '40:20 Just Do It!' challenge to be accepted as a relevant consideration within the negotiations".

16th November 2009

Recharging the Earth is an exciting new initiative for County Durham schools which will run over the next two academic years. The Outdoor and Sustainability Education Service are looking for schools to get involved in the project this year and next year. We would ideally like secondary schools to engage with all of their cluster primaries, we have planned to work with 10 secondary and 70 primary schools over the two years. There will be the chance for schools to develop learning materials, take part in some fantastic events and have the chance to win some sustainable technologies for the school and pupils. For more information please download the attached flyer. A CPD day for the secondary school teachers involved this academic year is planned to take place next month. CPD costs will be covered by the project. To register your school's interest please e-mail Nikki Lamb nikki.lamb@durhamlearning.net . Closing Date for Expressions of Interest: Friday 4th December 2009.

2nd November 2009

OASES successfully recruited a new Education Project Officer, Emma Kennard will be joining the team on 1st December, we are delighted she is joining the team based at The EWE Centre.

24th July 2009

The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) is running a campaign called Stop the Drop. As part of the campaign they have commissioned a schools education pack is a free to download and includes a range of information, activities and a story. It's worth downloading if you are planning on investigating or trying to combat litter in your school/ local community.

23rd June 2009

Many thanks to those Durham schools who responded to our questionnaire to inform the future development of the OASES service. Keep returning to this site to see our new portfolio and new web presence.

23rd June 2009

DCSF have launched the revamped Sustainable Schools website, visit www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools to find out more.

15th April 2009

As part of the DCC Corporate Approach to Sustainable Schools, OASES is engaging with young people involved with Investing in Children to ensure that the voice of young people in the County is taken into account. This work links to DCC's Building Schools for the Future programme also.

24th March 2009

Climate Durham, a community initiative for the City of Durham area was officially launched last week. It is developing a programme with schools, if you'd like to know more visit their website www.climatedurham.org

15th January 2009

The presentation from the Sustainable Schools session for Durham Schools is available to download as a pdf file from here. The session which was attended by representatives from 29 schools was a significant development of Durham County Council's Corporate Approach to Supporting Sustainable Schools. The schools that will be supported actively as part of the corporate approach will be notified shortly and made public soon afterwards.

8th January 2009

OASES and East Durham and Houghall College have developed a Keeping Animals course as part of the National DCSF Growing Schools Initiative which is taking place at the farm education centre at Houghall, Durham on Thursday 10th February. For more information please download the course flyer and the booking form.

19th December 2008

Apologies for the poor updating of the site this term, we have no excuses other than that the team have been flat out with work. There have been a number of structural changes to the Outdoor and Sustainability Education Service (OASES) this term which we will promote more widely next term.

May we take this opportuntity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

1st October 2008

The School Grounds team are delivering a range of INSET sessions across Durham through the Education Development Service and regionally through ESP. Visit the website for more information.

1st October 2008

Explore Renewables are offering a student from a one of the schemes participatimng schools the chance to win a fully installed solar thermal unit for their house. More information is available here.

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