Earth Centre

Kingsley School plans to link its entire sixth form curriculum to the central concepts of environmental sustainability and climate action. And key to the project is a signature building, the Earth Centre. We visited the school to find out more…

By Rupert Bedford

Published on Apr 8, 2020

Kingsley School is situated in the picturesque coastal town of Bideford in North Devon. It is an unlikely place for a groundbreaking education project. But the Earth Centre project is exactly that — a bold practical commitment to put environmental sustainability at the heart of further education.

“This is a hugely exciting project”, Pete Last, headmaster at Kingsley, says “and the aim of the project is to make Kingsley the ‘go to’ school globally for students who wish to hook their sixth form studies into the central concepts of environmental sustainability and climate action. So its a huge development for us”

At the heart of the project will be the Earth Centre building itself, that will incorporate ‘cutting edge’ design and environmental materials. And the idea is that the sciences and other closely related subjects like geography, environmental science, hospitality and a range of new vocational qualifications will all be based in the Earth Centre, where all of the work that happens there will be linked in to the central concepts of environmental sustainability and climate action.

“One of the key highlights of the project, Pete Last explains, “will be the development on some of our school land of a no-dig farming project, that will create food products for sale to the local community as well as supplying the school kitchens with homegrown produce”. No-dig farming, he explains, is going to be a very significant part of any future strategies to tackle climate change as it helps with carbon sequestration and means that increasing amounts of carbon are locked into the soil on a longer term basis and are not released through the action of plowing, tilling and hoeing that breaks the soil up and releases the carbon back into the atmosphere.

Alongside that the school will be introducing some new vocational qualifications at sixth form, such as Agriculture, Horticulture and Arboriculture. And so students will be able to be literally hands on with the farming process and understand how it can be done in a carbon neutral manner. There will also be an ambitious tree planting project on the school grounds to provide biomass that will help keep the fertilization levels of the soil high.

The main ethos behind the project is ‘learning by doing’. And central to this will be the Ecology Zone, a field station and agricultural research centre that will be attached to the Earth Centre. Its stated aim is to provide an ‘infinite number of opportunities for students to learn practical skills in both scientific investigation and in running successful horticultural enterprises run on ecological principles’. And it is here that many students will complete the project and practical work required for their qualifications.

“So a hugely exciting opportunity”, the headmaster enthuses, “which will tie in beautifully with so many other things that are already happening here in North Devon, where there are many local communities and families who are passionate about the environment and passionate about reducing our impact on it”

More information about the Earth Centre Project is available at www.earthcentre.earth

_____________

Rupert Bedford is a UK based journalist and documentary maker.

© RB Media.

If you are interested in publishing this story please contact Rupert at rupert.bedford@rbmedia.org