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Four schools across the UK (Alderbrook Primary School, London; Maindee Primary School, Newport; Glade Primary School, Ilford; and Swanhurst School, Birmingham)

Challenge:

Road transport is responsible for 80% of roadside NOx air pollution. Exposure to air pollution can cause a range of health issues in children including effects on lung function development, worsening of asthma, increases in asthma hospital admissions and it also plays a part in causing asthma in some individuals. Research is also beginning to point towards effects of air pollution on the developing brain, such as reduced memory function, but more research is needed.

But the car manufacturing industry has failed to take responsibility for its role in this health crisis, with only 1.5% of advertisement spent on zero emission models in the EU’s largest car markets. The ‘dieselgate’ scandal illustrated the lengths to which car manufactures will go to manipulate the rules and avoid changing their practices.

Earlier this year, the government were consulting on the proposed phase out date for the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. Global Action Plan, an NGO mobilising action to tackle the root cause of environmental and health crises, called to action schools around the UK to help in building their response to the government's consultation.

Action:

In a first of its kind project, 31 children aged 10 to 14 from Alderbrook Primary School, Glade Primary School, Maindee Primary School, and Swanhurst School worked with their teachers to expose the school run scandal: car manufacturers won't take action to protect children's health without stricter regulation.

The students took part in activities such as researching the emissions rating of their family car, collecting data on the types of cars on their street, reflecting on the different reasons why people use certain modes of transport, auditing car adverts, and writing a letter to car companies explaining the changes they would like to see.

Outcome:

In August, using the data that the students had collected, Global Action Plan took their response to the government and put forward the recommendation that the they regulate strongly to force car manufacturers to produce fewer internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and more zero emission vehicles (ZEV), and that this should include setting the most ambitious phase out date for new ICE sales of 2030 and setting limits on the volume of ICE sales in comparison to ZEV sales in the next decade. Global Action Plan is now eagerly awaiting the government's announcement on changes to the phase out date, expected this Autumn.

Alderbrook Primary School has also received responses from two of the car companies that they have written to and have even received a workshop from Volkswagen which gave the students the opportunity to directly ask the company what actions they are planning to take!

Getting started…

Run the School Run Scandal project at your school! You can access the teacher resource pack here. Here are some examples of letters that the students wrote to car companies.

A teacher from Alderbrook Primary School takes her students through the project in this video:

The School Run Scandal project was funded by the FIA Foundation.