SEE Academics enrich learning in Green Summit event

The Friends of Energy House 2.0 have sponsored The Green Project, which provides children in years 5 and 6 in the Trafford area with knowledge of sustainability. Marple Education and Spotlight Drama created the competition focused on sustainability to help teachers and children better understand green issues. With expertise provided by SEE Academics from our Energy House Labs, selected children showcased their work in a performance at the Green Summit Event.

The Green Summit looked at sustainable housing, recycling, nature and transport. It was developed to support teachers in handling a sometimes complicated subject with research conducted by YouGov and Oxfam finding that 75% of teachers felt they were not well trained to deliver sustainability education and 69% felt it should be better covered in schools.

The event was designed to help children develop literacy skills in speech, poetry and descriptive writing, using data provided by our Academics, with some children chosen to be trained in public speaking by Spotlight Drama. 22 schools in total entered with only 12 proceeding to the final event at Sale Waterside theatre on 4 May where over 200 people attended including: councilors, academics, sponsors of Energy House 2.0, parents and teachers.

One parent commented: “What an incredible production! Such an amazing experience for kids who wouldn't necessarily otherwise have exposure to theatre life! Thank you for all your hard work. The kids all had such varied pieces of writing! I for one feel very inspired. They all spoke with such passion!”

Energy house 2.0 plays a key role in accelerating the progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design. The project is in partnership with Barratt Developments, Bellway Homes, and Saint-Gobain who have constructed houses which can be tested in controlled conditions, stimulating wind, rain, snow and solar radiation, with temperatures ranging from – 20°C to + 40°C. The project situated on our campus paves the way in finding solutions for future homes to be as sustainable as possible.

Professor, Richard Fitton, said: “One of the key goals for the Friends of Energy House 2 .0 Fund was to improve our messaging to the public, what better way to do this, than to teach the leaders and innovators of tomorrow how to get their climate change messages across in an effective way.

“We believe that the use of the arts is fundamental in putting across these messages, to broaden the thinking and the audience.”

The Deputy Mayor of Trafford, Dolores O’Sullivan, said: “This is such a wonderful initiative, and an amazing opportunity for the young people of Trafford to be involved with, they are our future and the guardians of the planet so it's so good for young people to be part of the solution which we all know the planet is in dire straits at the moment.”