Learning for Sustainability
Learning for Sustainability is a whole-school approach that enables the school and its wider community to build the values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and confidence needed to develop practices and take decisions which are compatible with a sustainable and equitable society.
Learning for Sustainability (1.75 MB)
Learning for Sustainability Action Plan 2023-2030
SQA is committed to continuing to collaborate with partners to ensure that Learning for Sustainability is visible and supported through all new and revised qualifications, where required. Read more about the Scottish Government’s refreshed Learning for Sustainability Action Plan 2023-2030
One Planet Schools
In March 2013 Scottish Ministers accepted all 31 recommendations of the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) report.
The strategic recommendations from the report were:
- All learners should have an entitlement to learning for sustainability.
- In line with the new GTCS Professional Standards, every practitioner, school and education leader should demonstrate learning for sustainability in their practice.
- Every school should have a whole-school approach to learning for sustainability that is robust, demonstrable, evaluated and supported by leadership at all levels.
- All school buildings, grounds and policies should support learning for sustainability.
- A strategic national approach to supporting learning for sustainability should be established.
Vision 2030+ report
The National Implementation Group delivered their Vision 2030+ Report setting out the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) vision.
Recommendation 14 is specific to us:
The Scottish Qualification Authority should put mechanisms in place to ensure that all future reviews of qualifications will support LfS and will provide practitioners and learners with sufficient encouragement and time to adopt LfS pedagogies and approaches, including outdoor learning. Appropriate accreditation and qualification pathways are needed to recognise the LfS achievements of young people and prepare them for the world of work.
Read the report
Our progress to date
SQA is committed to incorporating the knowledge and skills of LfS in all new and revised National Courses and Skills for Work Courses and learning pathways. This commitment is driven by Recommendation 14 of The LfS National Implementation Group Vision 2030+ Action Plan.
SQA has worked with key internal and external stakeholders, including Education Scotland, to develop a LfS reflective framework, including online subject specific exemplification, linked closely to all the SDGs. Its purpose is to support qualification developers to incorporate LfS into all new and revised National Courses and Skills for Work Courses. LfS is incorporated either through specific assessable subject content, contexts or opportunities for personalisation and choice in coursework topics, where it is appropriate to do so. By incorporating opportunities for LfS in National Courses and Skills for Work Courses the teaching community in Scotland is provided with a platform to deliver LfS topics as a key aspect of their learning and teaching practice.
Future activity
- Ongoing revision of mapping activity as National Qualifications are revised.
- Additional guidance to Qualification Development Teams on the contribution that LfS can make to new or revised qualifications.
- Work with stakeholders to provide LfS recognition, signposting or accreditation.
Learning for Sustainability in action
We encourage Learning for Sustainability approaches during revision of assessment in National Qualifications.
National 5 Environmental Science
Environmental science courses encourage the development of skills and resourcefulness which lead to becoming a confident individual. Successful candidates in environmental science think creatively, analyse and solve problems. Studying relevant areas of environmental science such as the living environment, the Earth's resources and sustainability produces responsible citizens.
Practical/field work activity within coursework assignment provides centres with opportunities to undertake fieldwork activity.
The topic should be chosen with guidance from the teacher/lecturer and must involve experimental/fieldwork.
Find out more at National 5 Environmental Science.
Partnership working
We are working in partnership with:
Scottish Seabird Centre to provide access to resources that support National 5 Environmental Science and Biology, which have a focus on outdoor and fieldwork activities.
SSERC (Scottish Schools Education Research Centre) to develop resources to support the coursework assignment for all National 5 Science courses, which will allow for the promotion of various aspects of LfS.