Background
In recent years, Manchester City Council has made two major commitments that have connected young people in the region with saving the planet and have united to propel the Climate Change Champions project to the top of the agenda.
Firstly, in July 2019, the Council declared a Climate Emergency. In their subsequent plan to attack the goal of decarbonisation, the council set a target to reach zero carbon by 2038, which means reducing direct emissions by 95%.
Alongside this, Manchester is a candidate for Unicef Child-friendly City; adopting Article 12 which explicitly emphasises ‘the right for children to be taken seriously’. With this in mind, the council is keen to respond to feedback from young people and children and incorporate their suggestions into policies. As an illustration of this commitment, Manchester City Council took seriously the recommendations made by over 20,000 young people who voted in the annual ‘Make Your Mark‘ youth ballot; two main concerns they voted for were a curriculum that prepares them for life and the sustainability of the planet.
This has led to a number of innovative initiatives, such as Our Year 2022, which was a drive to put young people at the heart of Manchester’s future, and Manchester Youth Council’s proposal to embed the Climate Wheel and Skills to Save the Planet in young people’s learning.
Skills for Life and Climate Change Champions
Along the same lines, the council introduced the Skills for Life programme and the Climate Change Champions as two of their responses to satisfy these requests from young people.
The Skills for Life framework promotes 5 key skills for all school children in the borough to develop through Kloodle; Communication, Problem Solving, Self-Belief. Self-management and Teamwork. A climate change workshop is an example of a “skills building” opportunity where there are activities which young people can participate in and awards to recognise the development of these skills.
The Climate Change 
Champions movement pledges to make Manchester a carbon free city. It gives young people the chance to grow their knowledge and confidence in the science behind climate change and empower them to lead sustainable contributions to achieving the zero-carbon target in their own communities. This will allow them to not only to take action on reducing their own emissions and carbon footprint, but also to talk to others meaningfully and persuasively about the climate crisis.
The CCC Event for Schools
In order to promote the Climate Change Champions to young people in the region, Manchester Council held an event for schools at the Powerhouse in Moss Side, an area near the city centre. It was publicised under the Climate Action Now banner with the strapline “Reduce Reuse Recycle”. An easy-to-remember, powerful motto and access to lots of resources for activities!
The event was linked to the council’s Skills for Life project and the intention is to get young people in the region to think about: “How your skills can save the planet”.
Six schools with a group of pupils attended the event; four primary schools and two high schools:
And another three schools committed to participate:
Classes and Workshops
The children attended training classes and workshops with the following activities:
Here are some examples of 3 pledges made on the day:
The Way Kloodle is Used
It seems appropriate that the schools and children are encouraged to maintain a digital record of their activities which they can maintain and add to as they progress through school and life, rather than a hard paper copy.
Accounts were set up for the schools attending by simply following the provided link and inputting the school’s email. The children who attended the training on the day received a ‘Climate Champion 2023’ award as a digital certificate, which is displayed on their Kloodle profile (record of achievement) to kick-start their Skills for Life journey.
This is time-stamped and is a lasting record of attendance and commitment. Students will be able to add to their profile and continue to build, capture and evidence the skills as they take their Kloodle profile through the journey of life. The potential for successful skill-building was clear from the day’s enthusiasm and work.
If you are from a school in Manchester, and would like your learners to earn their Climate Champion awards, you can do so by registering here: https://kloodle.com/sfl-organisation#/
The experience and skills’ development from enrichment activities at the school can be captured by being recorded on Kloodle during or after each lesson or activity.
Learners do this by uploading photos, videos, documents and blogs to their Kloodle profile, tagging in the skills they are honing as part of the activity. By downloading the Kloodle app to their phones, photos and posts about activities can be recorded quickly as they are completed.
Each individual learner has a skills wheel on their Kloodle profile, which illustrates the growth in skill development. The climate change workshop is an example of a “skills building” opportunity; young people can participate in the activities to develop these skills, with the added incentive of gaining awards, raising confidence and awareness at the same time.
By completing tasks, learners can identify how their aptitudes can grow their individual skills wheel. That feels good!
In this way, Kloodle helps young people to build confidence and self-esteem; as their profile grows, they begin to realise they have a lot to offer the world.
Reflection is a very powerful component of the process as young people think more deeply about identifying skills and then how to develop them, so personal reflections can be added to Kloodle after activities, when students consider how their skills have evolved.
And here are some real-life excellent examples of how learners use Kloodle for reflections on climate change:
Conclusions and Next Steps
Manchester is a “progressive and equitable city” and the city council is arranging these types of events and activities to offer opportunities to educate young people in the city about big picture themes which affect their futures. It also helps to link with the issue of developing the skills which can contribute to a fulfilled life. The intention of Manchester City Council is to roll out the Skills for Life programme on Kloodle to all of the schools in the Manchester district so that young people in the vicinity can build confidence, believe their voice will be listened to and that they can make an impact.
If you would like a demo of Kloodle please book it here: Calendar
