Campaigners Mums for Lungs have launched ‘Clean Air Schools’ – an accreditation scheme for schools who are willing to promote the importance of clean air for children’s health and take action to reduce air pollution around their schools.
The scheme was officially launched yesterday, on Clean Air Day, with a celebration at Lyndhurst Primary School, in Camberwell, Southwark.
(l to r) James McAsh, Lucy Ellis, Jemima Hartshorn
Lyndhurst enjoys the benefits of being a school street and 5-year old Bebe Venning was enjoying the lack of traffic: ‘I like it because there are no cars coming left and right, you can run about on the street playing tag and you don’t have to stop playing.’
Mums for Lungs have set a number of conditions that must be met before Clean Air School status can be achieved.
- The school must include information on the importance of clean air for children, families and the community in the school’s onboarding pack for new pupils.
- The school must include information on the health and air pollution benefits of travelling to school by bike, scooter or on foot on the new starter webpage.
- The school must send out air pollution flyers and regular information in the school newsletter.
- Mums for Lungs will run a school assembly on air pollution each year.
- The School Leadership supports schemes that reduce traffic and air pollution around schools, from School Streets to Controlled Parking Zones.
Lyndhurst Primary School is already signed up to the scheme, as are the other eight schools in the multi-academy Charter Trust of which it is part.
Their Sustainability Director, Lucy Ellis, said: ‘We’re really proud to be the first Trust to sign up.
‘We think this scheme is an excellent way of encouraging our families to walk or cycle to school rather than drive, which helps reduce air pollution around the school.”
‘Five of the six primary schools in our Trust already have School Streets and we’re working closely with Southwark Council to increase this.
‘We would like all our schools – both secondary & primary – to be protected in this way. We’re pleased so many of our schools are based in Southwark, a borough that is prioritising children’s health, and has promised every school a School Street by 2030, or an alternative measure if a School Street isn’t possible.’
Jemima Hartshorn, founder of Mums for Lungs added: ‘We are delighted that the Charter Trust has signed their schools up to become Mums for Lungs Clean Air Schools. We think it shows real leadership. Recognising the impact air pollution has on children’s health and promoting the measures that reduce it – from School Streets to Controlled Parking Zones – is a great thing for their school community and highlights the issue to other schools.’
James McAsh, Cabinet Member for Clean Air, Streets & Waste at Southwark Council, has School Streets in his portfolio. He said, ‘It’s great to be working with trusts and schools that are so aligned with our own goals of reducing traffic and air pollution to improve children’s health. Southwark currently has 31 School Streets, and we are working hard to ensure that ALL schools have them or a different measure by 2030.’
Leave a Reply