Teach the Future & Beyondly – Inspiring climate education

At Beyondly, a portion of our profit is donated every year to support charities that address environmental, social, and governance issues. Last year, we were pleased to support Teach the Future as one of our chosen charities.  

Teach the Future is a youth-led campaign aiming to urgently transform the education system to address the climate emergency and ecological crisis. The campaign, led by over 40 young volunteers and hosted by the charity SOS-UK, advocates for the integration of climate education across the national curriculum. They also campaign for the inclusion of climate-related topics in teacher training, incorporation of green skills into vocational courses and making educational buildings climate-friendly with net-zero emissions by 2030.

Beyondly's funding has enabled Teach the Future to undertake various initiatives to promote sustainability and environmental education. An unexpected general election, which was announced in July, meant that they had to adapt some of their planned actions and strategies for the year. Instead, they focused on a general election campaign to ensure that climate education was on the minds of voters and political parties/candidates. 

As part of Teach the Futures’ general election campaign, they: 

• Organised for Bridget Phillipson (The Shadow Secretary for Education at the time of the visit) to visit a school which is using our 'curriculum for a changing climate' in their teaching and learning, and have lots of great sustainability initiatives. 
• Graded parliamentary candidates on their level of support for climate education and carbon-friendly schools. Over 170 candidates (and counting) answered 5 questions which they have scored to give an overall grade. Check out the results. 
• Read the main party manifestos to see where they all stood on climate education and the need to rebuild and retrofit our schools. Visit their Instagram page to see posts on each party, showing what they had promised and what the campaign group felt had been missed.  
• Attended hustings (meetings where election candidates or parties debate policies) and asked questions to candidates on climate education and the state of our schools. 
• Created resources - one to help people speak to canvassers who knock on their door and another to support on how to engage with candidates at hustings. 
• Ran several webinars with Hope for the Future, supported by Let's Go Zero, empowering more young people to engage with parliamentary candidates and their newly elected MPs on climate issues.