Longdendale High School host their first climate summit

Longdendale High School hosted their first ever Climate Summit (COP1) on Friday 24th March 2023.

Invited to the event were children from local primaries and key guest speakers; Jonathan Reynolds MP, Councillor Dan Costello, Councillor Janet Cooper and Councillor Lee Huntbach.

Head Boy and Head Girl, Seb and Charlotte, introduced our guests who all gave informative talks regarding the complexities around climate change and what we can do about it both collectively and as individuals. The day then moved onto practical workshops. Children from the local primaries were grouped with select Longdendale students for the activities.

Sydney Jones, Geography and Geology teacher from Ashton Sixth Form College led the first workshop around ‘Mining’. The groups learnt about why mining is carried out and what the environmental impacts are. They then had to decide what to do with the waste products (rocks) left over from mining. The groups came up with some great ideas, including using the waste rocks to build habitats for wildlife, creating coastal defences and turning them into car park extensions!

The second workshop was led by Head of Humanities, Ruth Kerfoot. The groups were tasked with deciding upon 3 pledges for their school to help reduce waste, save energy and reduce their carbon footprint. Students were encouraged to think about the financial costs of their choices and then signed their ‘Charter for Change’. They explained their pledges to everyone and finally, they were given an oak tree sapling to take back to their school.

Thank you so much to Longdendale staff, guest speakers, workshop leaders and local primary schools for attending the day. All guests taught us something new about climate change and left us all with a lot to think about. We were so impressed with the children from local primaries, we hope they found the day both enjoyable and informative. We can’t wait for next years summit to find out how the children got on with their pledges and discover how much their trees have grown!