Investing in curriculum resources for schools can be a very effective way of communicating message on sustainability to wider audiences for local authorities.

Not only do the children in schools benefit, but you can also effect behavioural change in parents and the wider community, especially when school activities are promoted in the local media. This might be part of your responsibilities in supporting the sustainable schools agenda. Or you might simply be looking for more effective ways to change adult behaviours on recycling, transport, energy, or to promote Fairtrade. Children are great ambassadors - enlist them to communicate the message!

WyEd creates teaching resources for primary schools which communicate your key messages through the curriculum, in formats that teachers find easy to use. For example, we created resources on Walk to School for the Environmental Transport Association, and a pack promoting voting for Derby City Council.

If you have a target to meet, or an issue for which you want to raise awareness, please do get in touch. We can create a resource that you can then provide for the schools in your area. Perhaps you want to visit schools yourselves and just need the resources. We can help.

The Environmental Transport Association is urging primary schools to use an exciting curriculum resource during Walk to School Week (19 - 23 May 2008) and Green Transport Week (14 - 22 June 2008).

The Environmental Transport Association (ETA) is providing a set of online lesson plans and resources designed to promote and support both Walk to School week in May, and Green Transport Week in June, as part of an ongoing programme of educational development.

The ETA recognises that many excellent resources sit unused in staffrooms because they are not immediately relevant to the main school curriculum.

The new ETA resource aims to solve this problem by providing a full themed week aimed at children in years 5 and 6 which will address day to day planning objectives. There is enough material in the resource to last for at least half a term, and teachers will need to select what is appropriate for them. Similar resources for other age groups are planned for the future.

Speaking about the new resources, ETA Director Andrew Davis said: "We are keen to educate the younger generation about the need for more sustainable travel and this is why we are investing in a primary school programme. We hope that local authorities as well as schools will use and promote these free resources widely."

Author of the resources, Rob Hattersley of WyEd, said: "Most teachers are keen to promote sustainability but think they haven't the time given other pressures. This resource is specifically designed to provide an exciting topic for a whole week of teaching across different subjects where all the planning and preparation is already done. It would be a welcome change after SATs for Key Stage 2 pupils."

Further information, teaching plans and downloadable resources are now available online at www.eta-schools.co.uk. Teaching plans can be downloaded in editable Word format, allowing teachers to customise them for their own classes and adapt them to their own school planning frameworks.

It’s coming up to election time again and local authority election departments might be wondering what turnout will be and thinking of ways to improve it.

For a small investment in a primary schools programme elections departments could: -

* generate excellent media opportunities highlighting the importance of voting
* engage children, parents and local communities in local issues
* develop a dynamic and proactive reputation for the department and the authority

Primary Vote is a bank of resources to enable local authorities and teachers to promote democratic engagement in and through the primary school curriculum.

This project uses role play to engage pupils as residents of a town in which they are also councillors. Acting in role, the children learn about decision making and consequences of decisions through an exciting blend of Literacy, Geography and PSHE learning activities.

The topic links with the real world of local politics and engages children as ambassadors for voting to their parents and others. There are some excellent PR opportunities for Local Authorities as well as schools.

Authorities can provide access for their schools to the standard www.primaryvote.co.uk website, or they can opt for a customised resource as have Derby City Council.

Contact WyEd or for further details visit www.primaryvote.co.uk

Following a process of accreditation, WyEd has been accepted as a member of the Society of Education Consultants. The Society has two primary - and mutually complementary - functions:

* To meet the professional and developmental needs of education consultants, and;
* To help potential clients to find the right education consultant for their needs;

The Society was founded in 1990 in response to the emerging market in education services. It now provides a one stop shop to individuals, education and children’s services managers and governors, whether in schools, LEAs, higher education establishments, or other institutions looking for high quality professional help and support. Our 140 or so members provide the high-quality and highly skilled pool of talent needed to provide that support. All our Members work to a strict Code of Practice that provides a benchmark for their integrity and the quality of their work.

For full details visit the Society website.

Building sites are dangerous places for children and building work often seen as extremely inconvenient to local communities. You can turn that perception around with a carefully planned schools programme. For example, visiting schools near your sites with a safety message could make children safer, reduce the danger of vandalism, and create a good reputation with local authorities as well as generating good stories in the local press which can only help your sales. For even more brownie points, you could develop school resources looking at issues around the sustainable communities agenda and how your work is contributing to this.

Rob Hattersley of WyEd has three years experience of doing just this for major UK housebuilder Laing Homes. If you work in construction and are interested in finding out more about how a schools programme could benefit your business, do contact us.

Who can disagree with the idea that schools should do more of everything in the same amount of time - more culture, more sport, more topics, more writing, more reading, and yet it’s the Maths that doesn’t add up (Lessons in Culture for every Child (13.02.08)). It seems every Education Secretary comes in and needs to re-invent the wheel because their predecessor couldn’t quite work out how it went round. Interestingly, the wheel wasn’t invented by a government department with time on it’s hands but some guy who had the time and inclination to think. It’s thinking time that schools and children have very little of.

On the face of it each new government schools initiative is hard to argue with and no-one would suggest Ed Balls has anything other than the best of intentions. But without telling schools what they should cut out, this is getting ridiculous. There are a limited number of hours in the school day. Schools are still under pressure to deliver a one-size-fits-all academic curriculum because the government doesn’t have the courage to tell parents (read “voters”) that children have different abilities, that some kids will master only the basic 3Rs but offer practical and problem solving skills of crucial importance to the UK’s future and live satisfying lives into the bargain.

Stop meddling. Free teachers and schools. Slim down the curriculum and allow local choice and control. Some boxes may not be ticked, but you will unleash a wave of creativity, energy and enjoyment (remember that?) in both teachers and children. That’s the culture we need.

Jim Hacker, none-time UK Prime Minister, once proposed abolishing the then Department of Education. “Abolish Education and Science?”, a horrified Sir Humphrey responded? “Not education and science, just the department,” replied the PM.

It seems some people still cannot see how things can get better without government departments interfering. But empowering people, and a corresponding reduction in the power of the state, is the only way things can improve. Now that would take some Balls.

I've just been updating the Primary Vote website, which is a bank of resources to enable local authorities to promote democratic engagement in and through Primary Schools.

Primary children can't vote, but they can act as highly effective ambassadors to parents, family, neighbours and friends in promoting the importance of voting. Primary schools can provide a great opportunity for raising the media profile of local elections and of the work of your department. Finally, election departments can begin developing a positive attitude to elections which will reap benefits in 5 - 10 years time.

The project uses role play to engage pupils as residents of a town in which they are also councillors. Acting in role, the children learn about decision making and consequences of decisions through a variety of exciting Literacy, Geography and PSHE learning activities.

The topic links with the real world of local politics and engages children as ambassadors for voting to their parents and others. There are some excellent PR opportunities for Local Authorities as well as schools.

More details on www.primaryvote.co.uk - if you want to know more do get in touch.

It seems our children are still eating far too much salt and this is a health time-bomb according to this report. Despite the efforts of some food manufacturers salt is still used to cover up the lack of taste in the convenience and processed food that is still the staple diet of many children.

Again the government finds bureaucratic solutions. One: avoid the convenience food issue by forcing manufacturers to lower their salt content (encouraging them to include more additives to make up the flavour). Two: Tell secondary schools they must teach "cooking" (having told them progressively to remove the subject, in some cases along with their kitchens, and replace it with "food technology" over the past few years.)

Most children have already developed their eating habits by the age of eleven. Whilst it can be hard to influence parents in the very early years, a real effort to make the growing and cooking of fresh food central to primary schools would be far more effective. It would also provide a fantastic way to tie together other subjects such as Literacy and Numeracy in an exciting and meaningful context. It might just motivate those switched off and disruptive youngsters who are high on food additives and causing so many problems in our schools.

Visit www.edibleclassroom.org.uk for details of a project idea for which funding is being sought.

If your organisation is campaigning for change on transport, food, health, energy, justice or fairtrade issues, where better to start than by engaging with schools? Not only do the children themselves learn about the issues, but through them you reach parents, families, the wider community, generate excellent PR opportunities with local and national media, and can build positive relations with key decision-makers. A schools initiative can be a very cost-effective PR tool in comparison with more traditional communication methods.

For example, the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) campaigns for sustainable transport and also offers a number of services such as breakdown cover for motorists who wish to lessen their environmental impact. The ETA commissioned WyEd to create a curriculum resource encouraging children to walk to school. This is a key message for ETA, but in providing the resource across the UK they also create opportunities to raise their profile. To see the result, visit www.eta-schools.co.uk. This is being promoted by local authorities in time for Walk to School Week from 19th to 23rd May 2008.

WyEd has been approved to join Ethical Junction this week. Ethical Junction is a not-for-profit sustainable community that promotes and advances ethical enterprise and lifestyles through an online database of approved organisations, newsblogs, ethical adverts and more. To be accepted for membership organisations have to prove their commitment to a range of environmental and ethical standards. You can now read WyEd's ethical statement here.