The Voice of Early Childhood23 Juli 2025

How to take the first steps on your sustainability journey

This article and podcast episode explore the benefits of covering climate change and sustainability in early years settings, for both children and staff. It also outlines England's Department for Education's expectations on nurseries, relating to climate change, and introduce the England's leading environmental education programme for nurseries, 'Eco-Schools: Early Years'.

Read the article here:

https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/how-to-take-the-first-steps-on-your-sustainability-journey/

This episode is sponsored by Keep Britain Tidy.

Keep Britain Tidy is a leading independent environmental charity that works to inspire, educate and enable everyone in this country to value the environment on their doorstep. Keep Britain Tidy includes the programmes Eco-Schools, Eco-Schools: Early Years, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces and the Blue Flag/Seaside Awards for beaches, as well as annual campaigns.

To find out more about Eco-Schools: Early Years visit:

https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/early-years/

Get in touch and share your voice:

Do you have thoughts, questions or feedback? Get in touch here! – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/contact/

Episode break down:

00:00 – Welcome!
02:00 – Children are perfect climate ambassadors
03:20 – Sustainability eco leads
05:40 – Eco-Schools: Early Years
09:30 – Educating the staff and using model nurseries
10:30 – Eco-challenges
12:00 – Involving families
14:45 – Government guidance
17:30 – Climate action plan is a journey
18:00 – Carbon calculator
19:00 – Getting the whole team on board
20:20 – Combatting eco-anxiety
23:00 – Tools to address climate change early
24:00 – Equipping children with language around sustainability
26:00 – Understanding sustainability as part of routines
28:00 – Eco-Schools: Early Years going beyond the EYFS
30:00 – Applications now open for Eco-Schools: Early Years

For more episodes and articles visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

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