News & Stories

Young changemakers from Good Life Schools groups in Sheffield came together at Sheffield Hallam University for a Good Life Schools Summit to celebrate the work they have been doing to create change in their communities this year.

Good Life Schools is a National Lottery-funded student-led, project based learning opportunity for schools, which gives young people aged 11-18 the opportunity to explore the impact of our consumer-driven, digital society and take meaningful action for change.

The Sheffield Good Life Schools Summit was a celebration of the great work of students from Meadowhead School, King Ecgbert School and High Storrs School who have been busy working on their Good Life Schools projects for the past 6 months.

Meadowhead School

Students from Meadowhead set up a shoe-cleaning station to highlight the service they’ve been providing in their school, where they invested part of their group’s funding into shoe-cleaning kits to increase the life-span of their peers’ footwear, in order to soften the financial impact on families, and to reduce the number of shoes and trainers that end up in landfill.  

They also demonstrated how they have been preparing for the opening of their Community Shop – an enterprise that aims to reduce the costs of expensive uniform for families of students attending the school. They have used some of their money to buy new and second-hand uniforms which they will then offer to their school community during the shops’ open hours in the summer holidays.
They have set up a rota for students to supervise the shop, demonstrating a real commitment to their cause.

Further to this they have continued working on their outdoor classroom area, making their dedicated space green and thriving to promote wellbeing amongst their peers.

“[being here has] made me realise that local small changes can have a big effect”

- student at regional event

I’ve been blown away by the initiative the students at Meadowhead School have taken, and their commitment to the cause. 

King Ecgbert School

I was very excited to come away with a beautiful new (old!) t-shirt from King Ecgbert’s screen-printing station. They enlisted other members of their school community in the form of their Design Technology and Art Departments to help them to make their own screens and designs and brought along old t-shirts from P.E. to allow other students to repurpose.  

Showcased in the middle of King Ecgbert’s stall was a poem written by one of their students.

“I love re-using old fabric & clothes to make new ones which I will wear!”

- student at regional event

High Storrs School

Over at the High Storrs School stall, we got our hands dirty in decorating a compostable plant pot and planting wildflower seeds to take home. This was a representation of the focus this Good Life Schools Group has had on reconnecting with the outdoors to move away from the pressures of technology and social media, and to use nature to improve wellbeing.

High Storrs have been working on a beautiful outdoor classroom that they believe is already having a profound impact on their school community.
The space can be booked by teachers for their lessons or by sixth formers looking for space to study. They researched wooden benches but found that they were very costly and required a lot of upkeep, so they settled on recycled plastic as it meant saving plastic from landfill.

“I’ve enjoyed creating awareness about consumerism in the younger years and to improve self-esteem”

- student at regional event

They have also been busy planting seeds and arranging for more trees to be planted as part of their mission to support their school’s biodiversity.

Teacher Ms Baker shared:

“Our High Storrs School Good Life students have loved being part of such an inspiration project. They have been given the opportunity to reflect on their choices and make a real difference to the lives of people within our school community. The conference gave our students an opportunity to share their hard work, and it was fantastic to see them overcome their anxieties about presenting in front of a group and really celebrate what they have achieved.”

One of the things that was noted by many of our attendees was the incredible interactions between students from different schools. They were friendly and generous in sharing their knowledge, and proud to share their achievements and learn from each other. This is exactly what Good Life Schools aims to embody – a shared feeling of empowerment to act throughout the community.

Lee Jowett, Climate Change and Sustainability Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, commented on the atmosphere at the event:

“I was impressed with all three of our schools and the variety and range of activities that they had undertaken.  The students each brought a practical activity which created lasting engagement. It was so nice to see students explaining to each other how to undertake the tasks.  We also provided materials to make wildflower seed bombs and wildflower seed paper as supplementary activities, and it was so nice to see students explaining how to complete the activity. Once we had shown the first group, they then explained to each other which was great. I'm really looking forward to seeing the projects progress and continue to build momentum.”

“I’ve enjoyed learning about the nature in other schools and the projects they’re doing”

- student at regional summit

Throughout the day students got to try their hand at interviewing each other and presenting on camera with our videographer Natasha Hawthornthwaite from Northern Heart Films, who was filming the Good Life Schools Sheffield Summit. It was brilliant to see the confidence and creativity shown by the young people as they took the lead in presenting and interviewing.

Watch Student Aliza as she does a Summit walk-about:

Reel thanks to Northern Heart Films

A huge thank you to everyone who made this year’s Good Life Schools journey possible:

• The amazing students of Meadowhead, High Storrs, and King Ecgbert Schools
• Their dedicated and enthusiastic teachers
• Our Sheffield community partners: Regather, Glistening Kicks, and Reyt Repair
• Our partners at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield City Council, and the National Lottery Community Fund

Being amongst Sheffield’s Good Life groups was truly an honour and I’m still buzzing from the energy of the exceptional young people. They have so much creativity and enthusiasm that they are carrying forward into the next part of their projects - I can’t wait to see what else they come up with!

Want to get involved?

We have space for a couple more Sheffield schools on the Good Life Schools Programme for the academic year 2025-2026. We would also love to hear from potential community partners who can support Good Life Schools groups in their project. 
 
Please get in touch with Sian ([email protected]) if you would like to find out more.

goodlifeschools.org.uk