Advertorial: The Sustainability Centre

If you’re a teacher who wants to get your pupils out of the classroom or are looking for something to supplement their citizenship learning then read on. Or if you are an adult who wants to start a new career, to retrain or learn some skills then see we offer. We also encourage young people and youth leaders to approach us because we have some really inspiring and exciting things happening!

Ben Law of Grand Designs repute is building a new roundwood timber frame eco-classroom on site this summer. The build is woven into our learning programmes therefore our participants won’t just benefit from a beautiful, sustainable building, they’ll also be involved and learn from the process of its creation.

Our site is set high in the South Downs National Park and has views to the sea. We have 55 acres of grassland and woodland and pride ourselves on our working examples of sustainable buildings, renewable energy, compost toilets, and low-impact life styles. This year we are improving and expanding our gardens, and again we are integrating this with our ethos of practical, real-life learning and involving participants from across our programmes.

Primary schools

The Sustainability Centre has been offering a service to Primary Schools since 2002 providing activities that help pupils grasp a variety of concepts relating to sustainable living and ecology. We have continued to develop our programme of activities for day visits with topics ranging from Food and Farming to Waste and Recycling and Energy and Resources. We also offer a 5 day residential for year 6 pupils, the South Downs Experience, which introduces pupils to this unique area, its history, wildlife, farms and conservation.

The site here has grown since 2002, acquiring more examples of sustainable use of resources. The creative activities, outdoor learning experiences and the involving site tour are very popular. Pupils are encouraged to explore our working demonstrations of sustainable building, photovoltaic panels, wood-fuel, composting toilets, live-in yurts, tipis and water conservation.

It is clear that there are more schools working towards Eco Schools, Healthy Schools and Sustainable Schools status with enthusiastic, committed teachers keen to get pupils out of the classroom and working with food growing and composting schemes. The garden here is now under development to meet that need and we’re involving children in its design and construction

Secondary schools

Our secondary school programme offers pupils a real hands-on experience of learning outside the classroom. The theories of appropriate technology, food and farming, sustainable building, recycling, energy use, and citizenship come alive for pupils to broaden their understanding of these subjects. As sustainability is now woven into the curriculum over many subjects, secondary schools now have the exciting opportunity to become more sustainable. We offer students ideas and inspiration that they can take back to their schools and use to start to make a real difference.

Young people

As part of the ethics of sustainability we aim to be as inclusive as possible. For many years we have been successfully working with young people, many of whom are not succeeding in the mainstream school system. They come here over a period of six weeks or more to learn rural skills. We work with groups of young people and students aged 11-19 from a wide range of backgrounds. We offer a choice of tailored activities including our certificated ‘Sustainable Landscapes’ programme, arts activities and work-based, practical learning.

We specialise in working with hard to reach young people, including those with emotional needs, learning difficulties or problems with drug and alcohol abuse and offending behaviour.

We also welcome foreign language groups, home-educated groups, gifted and talented groups and FE colleges and can tailor our programmes to suit.

Adult Learning

We offer a variety of practical skills based courses to adults. If you want to re-train, top up your skills or just get some hands-on experience then we have something to offer. We run Open College Network certificated courses, which provide you with practical know-how, a recognised qualification and count towards continuing professional development. The courses cover areas such as Sustainable Woodland Management, Coppicing, Green building, Permaculture, and Renewable Energy. Our tutors are industry based and experts in their fields.

We integrate our courses with the developments happening on our site. For example, last year the timber framing course built a lych gate for our entrance and this year they can be involved in roundwood timber eco-classroom being built here by Ben Law. Courses are being offered in both the framing and the clay work as part of the build.