Good Life Schools FAQs

Good Life Schools is a free programme for secondary schools which brings communities together to create ways of living and learning together that are good for us, and good for the planet.  The programme is designed for teachers to run with a group of students at your school.

Schools taking part in the programme will be provided with a pack of resources to help teachers guide a group of students through the Good Life Schools Changemaking process. This is a six-step process which enables students to explore the impacts of our consumerist, digital society and take action for change:

• Step 1 – Form a Good Life Group
• Step 2 – Explore the Good Life vs. the Goods Life
• Step 3 – Create a Good Life Charter
• Step 4 – Involve your community  
• Step 5 - Put your Good Life Charter into action  
• Step 6 – Celebrate and share your story  

Download our programme overview for a detailed breakdown of what each step entails. 

Your Good Life Group leads the Good Life Schools programme at your school. With the support of a teacher, they will be guided through the Good Life Schools Changemaking process.

The programme has been designed to be flexible and able to work with smaller or larger groups. Many of the recommended Good Life Group activities work with a class size of around 25 students.

Good Life Schools is designed for students aged 11-18. It is up to you, as a school, to decide how to recruit your group. You may want to offer the programme to one year group, or to mix older and younger students together. Students don’t need any prior knowledge or experience to join a Good Life Group – all they need is an interest in making positive changes to school life.

Good Life Schools resources initially support students to explore the topics of consumerism and wellbeing. The programme will equip students with an understanding of how to design a group project which benefits the whole community. The topics and projects that students decide on will be led by the unique interests and context of your school.

Good Life Schools supports students to design their own activities that are good for us, and good for the planet. We encourage students to explore initiatives that challenge the idea that we need a lot of ‘stuff’ to live a good life. Activities might include running a repair café to fix people's broken things, running a community swap shop for people to exchange things they no longer need, or planning an end-of-year prom with the challenge of buying nothing new!

The Good Life Schools programme is designed to run across one academic year. We recommend that your Good Life Group has the opportunity to meet together at least once a week for around 1 hour. The Good Life Schools programme pack contains all the activities and resources you will need to run the project, but we recommend putting aside around 30 minutes planning time each week to get familiar with the resources and prepare for the sessions.

During the 2024/2025 year, we are offering a supported programme for schools in North East England, the Midlands and South Wales. This is fully funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund and includes student workshops, ongoing support and a small fund for your Good Life activities. If your school is in one of these regions please get in touch with one of our Coordinators.

The Good Life Schools programme will become available online for schools across the UK in 2025.

Sign up to our newsletter to receive the latest updates.

Good Life Schools is free of charge. There is a small fund to support schools who are part of the supported programme in the 2024/2025 school year.

Good Life Schools was designed by environmental charity Global Action Plan and is being delivered in partnership with Leicester City Council, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Hallam University, Durham County Council, Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, Carmarthenshire County Council and Merthyr Tydfil County Council. The programme is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.

Between 2022 and 2024, Good Life Schools was piloted in partnership with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and five west London secondary schools. We supported over 3,000 young people to make significant changes in their schools for the good of people and planet. Good Life Schools in Hammersmith and Fulham now benefit from a range of student-led initiatives, including student-repair shops, Meat Free Mondays with recipes tried and tested by students, and stretch breaks in between lessons. Students who participated in the project felt: 

• Motivated to take action to help people and nature 
• Empowered to take action to help people and nature 
• Confident to take action to help people and nature   

Please email [email protected] with any questions you have about Good Life Schools.