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Across eight days, the Good Life Schools team ventured to three different cities across the Midlands and North of England and Llanelli in South Wales to celebrate all of the achievements of the schools who have completed the programme so far.

Young people are increasingly pushed towards high carbon lifestyles through targeted advertising and pressure to consume. Good Life Schools, a National Lottery funded programme, was developed as a way for students, with the support of their schools, to build resilience to consumption pressures and instead prioritise wellbeing for themselves and their communities.

On Tuesday 23rd June, we set up camp at Space Park Leicester where we had six schools from the city presenting their creative projects from the past year: Millgate School, Redmoor Academy, Brook Mead Academy, Lancaster Academy, Ellesmere College and Sir Jonathan North Community College.

On Wednesday 24th, we were hosted at Sheffield Hallam University to celebrate with three schools from the city: Ecclesfield School, King Edward VII School and Notre Dame High School.

On Thursday 25th, it was the turn of Durham, and we enjoyed the cool breeze and outdoor spaces of the University of Durham’s Mountjoy Centre. In attendance were Belmont Community School, New College Durham, St Johns Catholic Secondary School, Elemore Hall School and Villa Real School.

Last but not least, we brought together schools from across South Wales at Neuadd Y Gwendraeth, Drefach in Carmarthenshire, including Ysgol Peniel​, Canolfan Yr Eithin, Ysgol Ffwrnes​, Penyrheol Comprehensive​ and Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen​.

"For me, a good life is appreciating the things you have, spending time with people you love and doing whatever makes you happy."
- A young person taking part in Good Life Schools

The projects

Across the events we got to see all of the schools’ projects showcased and presented by the students themselves. As Good Life Schools is a youth-led programme, the young people were at the heart of choosing, designing and carrying out their project – meaning that the variety of topics tackled through their work was truly impressive! While every one of the nearly 20 projects we saw across the week were incredible, here are a few highlights:

• Brook Mead Academy, Leicester: Young people in the group were concerned about how much their peers were having to spend on going to prom, and how many clothing items were being purchased to only be worn once. To tackle this, they created a prom library where students can reserve dresses, suits and accessories, have them altered to fit, and then return them to be used again next year. The community has got on board, with people donating jewellery, local clothing shops giving dresses with minor faults, and even Tesco providing toiletry items like hair gel that couldn’t be sold due to nearly being at their sell-by date, but are still perfectly usable. The prom library already has bookings requested for 2027!
  
  
• Ecclesfield School, Sheffield: Young people collected plastic bottles and used them to create filaments which could then be used in a 3d printing machine. They used this to produce fidget toys, promoting wellbeing among fellow students. The group brought their filament-making machine to demo at the celebration event!
  
  
• New College, Durham: Young people on the catering course were concerned about food waste within the school, and worked with a local café to learn how to make pickles and preserves to use surplus food. They were also able to acquire composters for food waste, and are looking at creating a vegetable garden next year so they can cook with their own produce.

"It's a highlight of my year. It reminds me of what has real value in life. It empowers students when they see they really can have an impact."
- A teacher involved in Good Life Schools

The activities

Community partners are an essential part of Good Life Schools, visiting student groups to provide them with key skills for the project that they want to do and often supporting them throughout the process. We were delighted to have many of our community partners visit celebration events and run activity workshops for the young people attending.

Students got to participate in a wealth of experiences from forest bathing and bike repairs in Durham to learning clothing repairs in Sheffield, and making bath bombs in Leicester.

"Get involved! This has been a fantastic project and its hopeful to hear and learn from young people and create the conditions for a better future for people and planet."
- The Green Estate, current Good Life Schools community partner

The conversations

Throughout all of the events, conversations abounded about the impacts that the projects have had on young people, schools and their local community. Project partners attending consistently mentioned how impressed they were at the confidence with which students talked about their projects, answered questions and engaged with the adults present. The young people talked about how participating in Good Life Schools has increased their confidence as well as specific practical skills related to their project.

The best thing about attending these events, though, was the curiosity, depth of understanding and critical thinking that the young people demonstrated around consumption and wellbeing. In a world where division across society, politics and social media feels so common, watching young people talking so confidently and enthusiastically to peers and adults about the challenges we face and the solutions that they have come up with for their communities was a powerful reminder of joy and hope.

If you’re interested in running the Good Life Schools programme in your school, Multi-Academy Trust or Local Authority next term, get in touch with us at [email protected].