Schools across the UK are benefitting from a new wave of climate change experts after a startup began training teachers to inform the next generation about the dangers of global warming.

Founder of startup company EduCCate Global, Melanie Harwood, noticed a lack of up-to-date knowledge in the UK education system on climate change, so went about trying to fill a gap in the market. 

She managed to convince the UN to pass over its training material to the company, which she turned into a training resource for teachers. 

The company launched online training courses earlier this year, which gives teachers taking the course recognised accreditation from the UN as a certified climate change teacher.

Harwood thinks students around the country are inspired by Greta Thunberg to act on the climate crisis.

“In a year’s time we want this resource to be on our phones so every child has access to it,” she told Sky News.

‘Little Gretas’

“We can have millions of little Gretas getting our planet back to the health that it should be.”

Now the business’s founder is looking for sponsors to grow the platform and reach teachers and students around the country. She even mortgaged her house to get it off the ground.  

600 teachers across the country have already signed up to the programme which gives them five free modules to help them inform the next generation.

Authority

Dr Meryl Batchelder, a science teacher at Corbridge Middle School in Northumberland, has taken the course. 

She is also a climate activist with Extinction Rebellion. She said: “Teaching about climate change is hugely important.”

“By achieving UN accreditation, my voice has a lot more authority both within the classroom and beyond the school walls.”

Dr Batchelder has convinced the local Mayor to call on every school in the North of Tyne region to sign up to the training resource.

• Read: Rebel high school farming students send animals to a sanctuary instead of the slaughterhouse

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Oli Gross

Oli’s career and personal ethical values both help shape his reporting of the diverse world of veganism. His background is in local newspaper and magazine journalism, and his work has included reporting court cases, celebrity interviews, business analysis, food and drink features and government legislation.

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