International School Awards for SDG 13: Climate Action
Connecting Classrooms is British Council’s global education programme for schools that aims to help young people develop the knowledge, skills, and values they need for life and work in a global economy. Teachers are supported in developing their classroom practice in core skills, school leaders are supported in building their leadership skills, and schools are given the opportunity to share best practice and enrich international curriculum dimensions.
The International School Award (ISA) is a global accreditation programme that recognises the commitment and outstanding practices of schools in incorporating international learning into their classrooms. Successful schools are accredited for three years after completing their ISA journey which provides a complete framework for schools to embed SDGs in their curriculum, champion international work and collaborate with national and international partners.
This year over 1,840 schools from all over Pakistan are currently engaged in the ISA, involving over 3,680 teachers and 662,400 students. There are currently approximately 1,380+ school improvement projects where students and teachers are working on climate change related SDGs, focusing on creative activity-based and student-centred learning. Activities include visits to nurseries, awareness walks, plantation drives, research on water conservation, recycling old and waste material, growing fruits and vegetables, cleaning activities, minimising the use of plastic, informative documentaries and interactive sessions on issues such as natural disasters, deforestation, global warming, ozone layer depletion and acid rains, and celebrations of World Earth Day.
The aim is to align school activities with SDG 13 (Climate Action), which not only involves schools in global climate change conversations, but also raises their profiles in their local communities. These thematic international school linkages and global curriculum dimensions equip schools with a clear advantage over their peers by building new valuable knowledge and skill sets.