A new collection of resources has launched for teachers to bring clean air campaigning into the classroom  

Children are one of the groups most vulnerable to the harms of air pollution, yet are least likely to contribute to the problem. They are particularly at risk because their immune systems, lungs and brains are still developing.  

Bearing this in mind, together with the knowledge that almost every child in the UK is being educated in a location that is capable of harming their health, what can schools do about it? 

Lessons from Lambeth 

Taking action on air quality at school has been made easier for teachers and students by the launch of a new collection of Clean Air Campaign resources, as a result of work done by the Lambeth Schools Air Quality Programme. 

Free for schools everywhere to use, these action-focused resources are a result of the programme working with three schools in Lambeth, South London, which looked at understanding the factors affecting air pollution in schools and the effectiveness of different solutions. 

The resources mean that the insights from the Lambeth programme are now easily shareable with schools everywhere. If you’d like to find out more about what happened in each school, explore our clean air campaign case studies: 

• The Eco Team at Henry Fawcett school focussed on promoting active travel
• The Eco-Warriors at St Andrew’s CoE School tackled idling
• The Green Society at St Mark’s CoE School ran their own “Idling is bad, definitely not rad!” Campaign!

The programme was funded by Impact on Urban Health and brought together a team of experts from Global Action Plan, Arup and the University of Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE). 

What is available for schools? 

The Clean Air Campaign Resources comprise of activities that students can get involved with to improve air quality around the school, such as: 

• Raising awareness on active travel  
• Anti idling campaign resources 
• Creating a low pollution map 
• Having a car free day  
• Walk to School Week 
• Walking bus  
• Clean Air Vision, where students use their voices and creativity to share their knowledge of solutions with key decision makers 

These resources join an ever-growing library of support from Global Action Plan to help schools tackle air pollution:  

The Clean Air for Schools Framework (developed by Global Action Plan in partnership with University of Manchester and Philips Foundation) helps teachers choose what actions are most relevant to their school and to create their own tailored plan to tackle air quality. 

The Air Quality in Schools Intervention Toolkit (developed by Arup as part of the Lambeth Schools Air Quality Programme) is designed to work alongside the Clean Air for Schools Framework and provides further detail and guidance for schools, on specific interventions to improve air quality in and around school settings. 

Hannah Battram, Senior Manager, Clean Air for Children at Global Action Plan, says: “It was great to work with such a multi-disciplinary team to better understand how we can take steps to protect children from the damage caused by air pollution. Building a healthy future for our children and creating an environment where they can learn and play safely is key and this project has contributed towards that.” 

Kate Langford, Programme Director of the Health effects of air pollution programme at Impact on Urban Health says: “It’s unacceptable that children are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution in and around schools. This work will help provide schools with the tools they need to protect children from air pollution and create the best environments for children to learn, play and grow.” 

James Bellinger, from Arup says: “We’re excited to have created the Air Quality intervention toolkit for schools as part of this project and hope it will give greater guidance and enable school leaders to improve the air quality in and around their schools and safeguard children’s health and wellbeing.” 

Professor Prashant Kumar, founding Director of the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) at the University of Surrey says: “We are excited to have designed and implement the evaluation and monitoring for this project and help expand the scope of GAP’s Clean Air for Schools Framework. Children are one of the groups most affected by air pollution, so creating a more rigorous and data backed understanding of how to best protect them and safeguard their health both now and in the future is key.” 

Access the Transform Our World Clean Air resources for schools here.