{"id":5236,"date":"2020-01-31T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T15:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:42:07","slug":"sustainability-must-start-in-the-nursery-the-guardian-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/2020\/01\/31\/sustainability-must-start-in-the-nursery-the-guardian-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability must start in the nursery: The Guardian Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Children must be encouraged to learn through their involvement in reducing the environmental impact of their homes and pre-schools, say a coalition of early years educators<\/h3>\n
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Read the article online at theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>

Below is the content of our letter, published Thursday 30th January:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\"As a coalition of early years educators, we are alarmed that sustainability hasn\u2019t been given a stronger focus in the\u00a0<\/span>government consultation<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>on reforms to the early years foundation stage, which closes this Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Politicians of all parties must urgently acknowledge and address the vital impact that sustainability must have on saving future generations and our planet. We can only make a lasting difference by teaching the next generation about the values of sustainability. In England we start this too late, when children begin full-time at school.<\/p>\n

\"England lags behind not just Scotland and Wales, but also New Zealand and Australia, which have already embedded sustainability into early years education. We must catch up. Children must be encouraged to learn through their involvement in reducing the environmental impact of their homes and pre-schools. An ethos of sustainability must be embedded in every aspect of daily life and the management of early years settings. Additionally, providers must ensure their employees understand, through training and information, that they are role models for sustainable citizenship.<\/p>\n

\"Early years providers are uniquely placed to cultivate respect for sustainable practices, and we believe that the government needs to recognise this and extend the support for the environment that already exists in primary schools into early years too.<\/p>\n

\"The government must introduce sustainability to the curriculum as early as possible, and encourage behaviours that will teach the next generation to secure a more sustainable future for all.\"<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Cheryl Hadland\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chair of trustees, The Green Early Years Choices Champions Organisation (GECCO), and managing director, Tops Day Nurseries<\/em>
Liz Bayram\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chief executive, Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years<\/em><\/strong>
Mark Bird\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Health, safety and environment director, Childbase Partnership<\/em>
Diane Boyd\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Senior lecturer in early years, Liverpool John Moores University<\/em>
Nicky Edwards\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chief executive, Natural Choice Nurseries<\/em>
Amanda Horsfall Turner\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Director, Littlest Elf and Planet Children<\/em>
Julie Hyde\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Director, CACHE<\/em>
Neil Leitch\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chief executive, Early Years Alliance<\/em>
Dr Paulette Luff\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Course leader, MA Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University<\/em>
Dr Naomi McLeod\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Senior lecturer in early childhood and education studies, Liverpool John Moores University<\/em>
Dr John Siraj-Blatchford\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Director, Schemaplay<\/em>
Purnima Tanuka\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chief executive, National Day Nurseries Association<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Support the GECCO campaign to include sustainability in the reformed EYFS framework; sign the petition at change.org<\/strong>, and please share with colleagues and parents!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

change.org<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\t\t\t\tToday marks world ocean day 2018! On World ocean day people all over the world come together to celebrate and honour our oceans and to start creating a better future! If we work together we can create and cleaner and better planet for everyone! Let us know how you will be celebrating world ocean day!\n\nTake a look at Founder of GECCO, Cheryl Hadland's photos from her recent diving trip in the Philippines! This is why we need to protect our stunning ocean life!\n\n[gallery ids=\"526,527,528,529\" type=\"slideshow\" link=\"file\" orderby=\"rand\"]\t\t","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[117,120,119],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-change-org","tag-eyfs-framework","tag-gecco-petition","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13765,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions\/13765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}