I have long studied, and argued, that climate change is a school safeguarding issue and for me it is beggar’s belief that no policy that I have come across has mentioned the issue in terms of a risk factor to their children’s well-being and access to education. Depsite publishing numerous articles, delivering powerful talks, and facilitating workshops for school staff, I haven’t made much headway it seems. However, my new role as the East of England’s Regional Hub Manager for the DfE-funded Climate Ambassadors scheme has been a catalyst. While my main role is to coordinate efforts across the region, I do get the chance to engage in and offer out Ambassador activities myself.
One of the offers of support I put out is to help schools link climate change with their safeguarding policy. At the beginning of the month, I was delighted to work with a group of Sustainability Leads supporting them with priortising actions stemming from their newly-minted Climate Action Plans, one of which was to evaluate how their respective safeguarding policies can be made more climate literate.
The Halcyon Federation consist of two schools, Wicklewood Primary and Drake Infants and one nursery. They have got underway with their Climate Action Plans (CAPs) after working with Let’s Go Zero and worked with me using an audit tool I developed looking at different safeguarding categories such as ‘Mental Health & Wellbeing’, ‘Community Engagement’, assessing against statements such as ‘We ensure that mental health support is available for students who have experienced climate-related disasters’.
Photo: Above – Sustainability Leads Sara Farish, Danielle Ware & Katie Fox from the Halcyon Federation, Norfolk with me working on their Climate Action Plan and auditing their safeguarding policy.
The Federation’s Sustainability Leads Sara, Danielle and Katie said they felt much more confident on what a climate literacy safeguarding policy looks like, and helped them to prioritise their next steps, one of them to make small changes to their safeguarding policies such referencing climate emergency plans in the ‘Adaptation & Resilience’ section of their CAP.
“The safeguarding audit spreadsheet [Kit Marie] put together has helped us hugely to break down the areas we need to include within our school safeguarding policy.” said Sara. “With [their] guidance we are now confident and feel that this action is feasible without it being a timely process. We are a small federation so can sometimes feel isolated putting plans like this in place – it provided a great morale boost and was an excellent reminder that we are not alone in the process and there are people and organisations we can lean on for support.”
Image: Above – Part of Drake Primary School’s “Adaptation and Resilence” section of their Climate Action Plan, making reference to actions to be taken relating to their safeguarding policy.
I plan to improve the safeguarding audit tool with feedback from Sara, Danielle and Katie, and provide guidance so schools can independently assess themselves, or for a Climate Ambassador to help with the process. I also hope to provide more guidance here on my blog so school Sustainability Leads and Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) can independently work on making their policies climate literate. In the meantime, I am happy to offer support to any school in England via the Climate Ambassador scheme. If you have a STEM Learning account, you can request my support here, or if you don’t simply get in touch via the ‘Contact’ page.
Geogramblings 
This is an exceptionally insightful post—highlighting why climate change deserves a place not only in curriculum planning but also within safeguarding frameworks for schools. Linking climate action to student wellbeing, mental health, and resilience feels both urgent and compassionate, especially in light of increasing eco-anxiety among young people.
I really appreciate how the author shares practical tools—like the safeguarding audit spreadsheet—and real case studies from the Halcyon Federation. These concrete examples uplift educators and school leaders, turning complex ideas into actionable next steps. This sort of empowerment-based guidance is exactly what’s needed to make climate literacy feel achievable in busy educational environments.
Thank you for sharing such a thought‑provoking, well‑informed, and hopeful perspective on embedding climate into safeguarding. The combination of evidence-based insight, practical application, and genuine care shines through—making this a truly valuable resource for schools everywhere. 👏
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