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Thousands of South Yorkshire children are set to take part in the second schools’ climate conference this week.

Pupils from primary and secondary schools across the region will come together for the three-day online event run by the Schools’ Climate Education South Yorkshire (SCESY) from Tuesday to Thursday.

It will feature dozens of live and pre-recorded workshops from a variety of organisations and speakers including Foodworks, on how to upcycle quality surplus and locally grown ingredients into food and drink, and Project Drawdown, on how everyone can contribute to tackling the climate crisis by a leading research group based in the USA.

Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, and Catherine Nuttgens, from Sheffield Council, will also be giving talks.

Amazelab, pictured, will be running workshops on combining science and creativity to solve problems at the South Yorkshire Schools' Climate Conference.

It follows the success of the first conference of this kind last year which brought together around 60 schools from across the area.

Richard Souter, coordinator for SCESY, said: “SCESY was set up in response to the climate crisis and the inadequate progress being made in combating it.

“We believe that it is essential that schools, including their staff and children, are empowered with the knowledge and skills they need to accelerate change in society in order to address the challenge.

“We hope these conferences are the start of a journey for them in doing what they can within their schools and communities to both promote and advocate for change.”

Climate Change All Saints' Noticeboard. A display of wind turbine models created during one of the workshops at the South Yorkshire Schools' Climate Conference last year.

All of the workshops from last year’s conference remain online as a resource for schools.

Rafia Hussain, a secondary school teacher in Sheffield, said: “The SCESY conference got the environmental ball rolling in my school. We were able to self-reflect as a school and think about what we can do both individually and collectively. It certainly raised awareness.

“We had over 100 people who took part, creating a lot of enthusiasm. Some teachers went on to do workshops in their own time and we have set up a Climate Champions Committee to make the school more environmentally friendly. It is so important to embed climate issues into the curriculum to help everyone create a more sustainable world.”

The timetable for the event can be found here: https://www.scesy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/South-Yorkshire-Schools-Climate-Conference-2022-timetablewith-resources-teachernotes-and-links.pdf

Climate change: South Yorkshire school children gather for three-day climate conference