Schools

What if we knew the root causes of all environmental problems? What if we knew their positive opposites?

Then we could use this knowledge to stop causing these problems in the first place.

RoundView is a toolkit for sustainability thinking and learning.
Build whole school learning and hope instead of eco-anxiety.

Learning for sustainability is a whole area that schools have to cover, and this is almost like giving them a one stop shop.

Community Engagement Officer - Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere

As a new teacher, the hands-on learning tools of the RoundView gave me a powerful way to engage with students.

PGCE secondary teacher trainee - University of Manchester

I enjoyed all the games and the learning because it taught us a lot about nature and wildlife which is something I care strongly about.

Year 6 pupil, Key Stage 2 - Carbon Landscape Project

A compass steering towards a positive future

- sustainability learning across the whole school

Schools are expected to embed sustainability across curriculum, leadership, and whole-school practice. The Department for Education, Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy gives requirements for sustainability leads, climate action plans, curriculum integration. The need is real, as are the challenges.

Implementation is challenged by lack of time, confidence and resources, as well as concerns about increasing eco-anxiety amongst young people. Timetable pressure leaves little room for new content, and implementation is often siloed in isolated classroom projects when the strategy calls for whole-school practice.

With RoundView, teachers are supported to engage with sustainability across age groups and different subjects, without needing to become experts.

It has made an emotional impact. I think pupils were just scared that the Earth's going to end. But this really nails what's happening with the Earth's journey in such a clear way, and that actually gave them a lot of hope.

Building hope in place of eco-anxiety

Sustainability teaching that focuses on the scale and severity of problems without offering a positive response risks contributing to eco-anxiety. RoundView gives an answer to the question: how can we think about sustainability in a way that is positive, easy to understand, and empowering?

Feedback from pupils shows that hope and a genuine sense that positive change is possible can replace a sense of overwhelm and doom. Confidence grows, the capacity to think clearly, question, and engage rather than feeling paralysed by the scale of the problem.

I felt more hopeful, because I felt that there was much more that we could do to change the world. I think this will be useful for all the children in the school. You're having fun and learning at the same time. I think it's very important to learn the message and give it out to everyone.

Supporting teachers with hands-on learning tools

The learning is hands-on, making it easy to teach the core principes through play, art and poetry. Puzzles, games, outdoor activities and storytelling make the experience positive and memorable.

RoundView learning can be adapted to different ages and entry points in the curriculum.

People learn differently through words and pictures. what you have done here is brilliant, it means you can interact with the ideas. Every side is different, and you can learn something around each corner.

RoundView inspiring a Climate Art Project in primary schools

Creating connections across the curriculum

Science, Geography, History, PSHE all have natural connections, and the RoundView acts as a unifying thread. It provides a coherent, positive frame that makes it possible to see how carbon, climate, biodiversity, ecological systems and social sustainability fit together.

RoundView is aligned and compatible with:

Department for Education Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy’s first aim: “excellence in education and skills for a changing world”
UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.7, knowledge and skills for sustainable development
Whole-school approach, leadership, curriculum, and school practice
Climate action plans, tools and shared language for sustainability leads

Beyond the school itself, the RoundView opens exciting possibilities for connection and reach. There is genuine intergenerational learning potential, children sharing what they have learned with parents and carers, for example by taking family members to a library or museum that hosts RoundView activities.

I found it really helpful to have the RoundView as a big-picture framing, giving me hooks to link ideas from other areas of the curriculum into thinking about positive sustainable futures. I especially enjoyed using the RoundView timeline to teach about the three kinds of rock in geology – using this teaching to reinforce sustainability messages.

What this can look like in practice

Hands-on learning in the classroom

The RoundView introduces systems thinking through inclusive, hands-on activities and puzzles. These can be used to:

Introduce sustainability in a dedicated session
Provide an activity for school clubs and eco-councils
In whole school programmes, e.g. Mantle of the Expert, Science Week
Weave sustainability learning over a several weeks or semesters
Build synoptic learning across multiple years, being used in increasing depth
Give opportunities for peer learning, with older pupils teaching younger years

The resources are designed to be teacher-supported but not teacher-dependent, they can be used without specialist sustainability expertise or extensive preparation.

Try now!

Hands-on puzzles, in active use across school and library settings – contact us for info
Poetry in multiple languages, curriculum links to English, community and modern languages
Word search for primary school, Download pdf: RoundView WordSearch & Solutions

For sustainability leads and school leadership

RoundView provides a whole-school strategy all benefit from a clear, positive framework that everyone, staff, students, and governors, can understand and use.

Adoption can begin at whatever level fits, from a staff development session, to a cross-curricular project, to a whole school experience.

RoundView provides something immediately usable for the sustainability lead who needs to make progress now, while also supporting the longer-term vision of genuine whole-school integration.

Learning that travels: school, home and community

There is also potential for intergenerational and community learning. The hands-on learning tools make it possible for children to share what they have learned with parents and carers, for example, by taking family members to a library or museum to explore RoundView materials together.

This reverses the usual direction of sustainability education and creates ripple effects beyond the school itself.

Bringing sustainability to life