School in the North Manchester area aims to be 20 years ahead of the nation by becoming carbon neutral by 2030

A school in the Higher Blackley has announced am action plan with the intention of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, 20 years ahead of the rest of the country.

The senior leadership team at Our Lady’s Roman Catholic High in charge of the school’s action plan, Kris Cope, said: “We are working with guardians of change and Dr Emma Gardener to calculate our carbon foot print.

“All electricity is wind generated and the new building will be fully environmentally friendly with ground floor heating.

“We have opened a forest school which is a place in nature where the kids can do outdoor things like orienteering.

“The school has 68 percent of its pupils who have English as a foreign language and over 50 languages spoken in the school.

“We are currently rolling out the school plan to families and to convince the community to get on board. We are creating a parent committee for diverse group of parents to help guide the process.”

The school serves a large portion of economically-deprived families and communities. Pupils are given free uniforms and PE kits from partially recycled materials alongside water bottles which reduce the need for overpriced water in plastic bottles.

When asked what the hardest thing about rolling out the problem was, Kris said: “Finding and procuring goods are some of the challenges we face. Covid threw off our momentum but we did it once and it’ll be easier to do it again.

“We need to really have a look at faculty procurement to make sure we are making environmental sound decisions and purchases.

“We spend a fortune, so it’s about challenging our suppliers to offer sustainable products and services.

“Small changes will lead to big impacts. We are really passionate and we are no where near finished”.