In this episode, Martin talks with co-chair of the London Climate Action Week Schools Group, Malini Mehra. Malini is the CEO of GLOBE International (http://globelegislators.org/), the environmental legislators organisation. She has more than three decades of experience on sustainability, gender, human rights and climate in multiple sectors. From leading international campaigns for Friends of the Earth International, Oxfam and other NGOs to founding an award-winning Indian climate & sustainability NGO, she has co-authored the UN’s Human Development Reports and advised the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on UN reform. Currently, she is a commissioner to the Mayor of London on sustainable development, and an adviser to the head of the UN’s disaster risk agency. A keen swimmer, she founded the Teach A Girl To Swim (https://teachagirltoswim.org/) campaign to highlight the hidden global epidemic of drowning and connect it with the climate crisis and girls empowerment. She is based in London, where she raises her three children, and helped initiate the annual London Climate Action Week. 

Martin and Malini reflect on the successes of this year's event, what lessons they learned from it, how the pandemic has changed not just the event, but the conversation around climate, and the need for a unified direction for schools to take climate action.

Catch up on events from this year's LCAW:

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

A magical audio-story, created for London Climate Action Week 2020, to launch a sustainable food project.

In this chapter Edmund gets another visit from Minerva the magical Jaguar, who brings a Christmas message for him and the year 7 students of Glebe school...

Background

This story has been created for London Climate Action Week during a global pandemic. It is inspired by zoom meetings and by a belief that despite everything there is much hope and magic.  The story launches a sustainable food project between two groups of young people: Year 7 students at Glebe School, an SEN school in the London Borough of Bromley and young people in a refuge on the outskirts of Lima, Peru.

How will this work

The project has two parallel journeys:

People

The voice of Edmund and the narration are by Martin Crabbe, Head of Geography at Glebe School. Martin was inspired to write this story by the grandmother of Martin Allen Morales , by the Wild Area and by so many other things!

The voice of Minerva is played by Leydis Vollar, Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Glebe School. Leydis will also translate each episode of the story into Spanish for our friends in Peru.

People who are about to become involved...

Mark McKillop, Head of RE, Glebe School 

Martin Allen Morales - advisor, inspiration 

Malini Mehra - advisor 

The young people of Glebe and in the refuge in Lima 

Many other experts as we continue.

And if this magical story inspires you why not get involved from your own perspective? And tell us how you get on.

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

Today's podcast is a special celebration of London Climate Action Week 2020 (https://www.londonclimateactionweek.org/). The week had over 200 events, with over 30,000 people taking part across a huge range of sectors. Due to pandemic, the majority of the events took place virtually - but they weren't any less inspiring! 

This episode aims to give you a flavour of the week with a focus on schools and the young people involved, so Martin has selected a montage of clips from his favourite things from the week.

The first clip is the Choose Life! video inspired by the film Trainspotting, and, followed by the LCAW launch film. Following that is an introduction to the Let's Go Zero campaign (https://letsgozero.org/) with Alex Green from Ashden (https://ashden.org/) featuring a short clip of an interview with Martin. Then there's a poem from poet Rakaya Fetuga at the Ashden Awards, followed by an interview led by Studio 2909 (https://www.studio2909.org/) with sixth form students from Sydney Russell School in Dagenham. After that is a few words from Zamzam Ibrahim - president of the NUS, then clips from the Semble (https://semble.org/) webinar Supporting Youth Climate Action in our Communities, featuring Amanda Horton-Mastin, Carley Sefton, Mya-Rose Craig, and the incredible Eco Emeralds.

Events and other links featured in the podcast:

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

A magical audio-story, created for London Climate Action Week 2020, to launch a sustainable food project.

Background

The project has two parallel journeys:

People

The voice of Edmund and the narration are played by Martin Crabbe, Head of Geography at Glebe School. Martin was inspired to write this story by the grandmother of Martin Allen Morales , by the Wild Area and by so many other things you will have to wait until his blog comes out next week on Semble (Wednesday 25th November)!

The voice of Minerva is played by Leydis Vollar, Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Glebe School. Leydis will also translate each episode of the story into Spanish for our friends in Peru.

People who are about to become involved...

And if this magical story inspires you why not get involved from your own perspective?

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

London Climate Action Week 2020 (https://www.londonclimateactionweek.org/) starts on Saturday 14th November and as an aim of this podcast is to get schools involved in LCAW, Martin shares some highlights to expect in the coming week. You can check out the full diary of events here (https://www.londonclimateactionweek.org/events).

Martin also talks about episodes of the podcast that will be highlighted during the week, The School's Pack of free lesson plans (http://www.londonsustainableschools.org/london-climate-action-week.html), and a special surprise for Wednesday lunchtime...

Events mentioned in the podcast:

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

Lorna works for Semble (https://semble.org/) (formerly Project Dirt), a platform that brings together businesses and community projects to make change happen from the grassroots up, and a long time partner of Outdoor Classroom Day. Lorna believes in the power of storytelling to inspire real change; and spends her days devising wonderful ways to celebrate community action. 

In this episode, Martin and Lorna discuss the work that Semble are doing with kids, communities and climate action, through two of their major campaigns: Backyard Nature and Outdoor Classroom Day. Lorna also talks about an exciting webinar Semble are hosting during London Climate Action Week.

Other links mentioned in the podcast:

Find this episode's supplementary lesson plan here. (http://www.londonsustainableschools.org/doorways-podcast.html)

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

Annette Figueiredo works with the Greater London Authority (GLA) (https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/how-we-work-london). She is instrumental in developing environmental programmes for London schools based around water, air quality and climate resilience. Her work is set within the context of the London Environment Strategy and addresses ways that London can adapt to climate change whilst meeting London's zero carbon emissions target by 2050. It integrates planning, health, transport and social policy areas. Annette has recently led the development of a Guidance document for schools/nurseries on how they can adapt to London's changing climate. It considers three areas in detail: higher temperatures, flooding and water scarcity. Martin and Annette have worked together on various projects over a number of years.

In this episode, Martin and Annette discuss the risks to London schools of poor air quality, rising temperatures, flooding and water shortages and how they can adapt to these environmental changes. They touch on some of the resources and reports the Greater London Authority produce to help schools take climate action and links to these are provided below.

Other links mentioned in the podcast:

Find this episode's supplementary lesson plan here. (http://www.londonsustainableschools.org/doorways-podcast.html)

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

Cath Prisk, CEO of Outdoor People (https://outdoorpeople.org.uk/) and Global Partnerships Director for Outdoor Classroom Day (https://outdoorclassroomday.com/), is a well respected thinker and advocate for children and the outdoors. She has led large scale programmes, campaigns and research, both in the UK and globally, based around outdoor play and learning. Her work has always supported children, schools and families and has helped governments, corporates and charities to meet their aims. 

In this episode, Martin and Cath discuss the importance of time spent outdoors for children's development. Cath discusses how schools can improve their students' play including how to maximise play areas with limited resources and space. Cath discusses the global growth of Outdoor Classroom Day and why celebrating the outdoors is more important now than ever. They also take a trip to the beach!

Other links mentioned in the podcast:

Find this episode's supplementary lesson plan here. (http://www.londonsustainableschools.org/doorways-podcast.html)

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

This week Martin talks to the remarkable Judy Ling Wong CBE, OBE. Judy is an artist, poet, dancer, environmental activist and a founder of the Black Environment Network (BEN - http://www.ben-network.org.uk/). Martin and Judy first met in the late 90's and Martin has since worked for and with Judy on projects such as Sowing the Seeds and London National Park City.  

In this episode, Martin and Judy discuss her journey from Hong Kong to becoming one of the most respected figures in the environmental movement - not just in the UK, but across the world. Judy also shares her perspectives on the Black Lives Matter movement and its implications for climate action. 

Other links mentioned in the podcast: 

Judy's simple but profound recommendations:  Develop in your students a passion for nature, and a love of each other and relating to each other. 

Find this episode's supplementary lesson plan here. (http://www.londonsustainableschools.org/doorways-podcast.html)

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)

In this 'shorter than usual' episode, less really is more. In under 20 minutes Martin describes how this year's Outdoor Classroom Day provided inspiration to Proyecto Perú (Glebe school's global learning project). Martin tells the story in audiobook style, reading from a blog he wrote on May 26th.

Note on the blog that formed the basis of this podcast: It was the ninth blog out of a series of 12 blogs entitled 'Reflections'. The first blog was written April 8th, 2020. They were a deliberately reflective series, written in Lockdown, which ultimately led to the creation of the Doorways podcast. 

Start your school's journey into sustainability:

This podcast was produced by The Pod Farm. (https://www.thepodfarm.com/)