LET'S Go Zero, a campaign now supported by over 2,000 schools, colleges and nurseries in the UK teaching more than 1 million students is supporting National Schools Action Day, which will promote a range of climate themed-challenges and activities.

On Wed 21 June, Leeds: The National Schools Day of Action - the Running out of Time Relay will pass through Yorkshire and will pass the baton from Southway School, Greenmount Primary School and National Centre for Atmospheric Science ending the day with a final visit to Boothroyd Primary Academy School.

It will be a great opportunity for students to get moving and explore their passion for sustainability.   

The National Schools Action Day will take place in unison with Running Out of Time’s Ben to Ben relay.

Ben to Ben – a baton relay going from Ben Nevis in Scotland to Big Ben in London - will be the UK’s biggest relay of runners from all walks of life, running more than 2,500km across 50 towns and cities in just one month.

The Running Out of Time relay will  pass by schools and local points of interest throughout the UK, meeting locals and giving talks as they go.

The relay started on 10 June and will end in Parliament Square in London on Tuesday 11 Jul. Thousands of people will pass the baton to inspire the nation to take collective action towards becoming zero carbon.  

On the Action Day students can get active in whatever way they want – from joining the relay, making special sustainable batons and having their own relay at school, or just dancing around the classroom. 

The National Schools Action Day on 21 June will also help schools take part in #ShowYourStripes – an active and colourful way to represent the rising global temperature over the last 100+ years, and to get students thinking about climate change (the stripes for countries and cities around the world can be downloaded for free from showyourstripes.info). Schools will be sharing their human climate stripes on social media. 

Many schools will form a human picture of the temperature rise year by year by wearing t-shirts of different colours from blue to red to represent the climate stripes.

Alex Green, head of Let’s Go Zero said: “We love the way that schools are getting involved in National Schools Action Day –some are running, but others are cycling, swimming, walking, windsurfing, kayaking, climbing – even skiing!

As well as putting the action into climate action, they are also calling for the government to commit to all UK schools being zero carbon by 2030 and to announce long term and consistent policies and funding to enable this. This is the serious but really essential part of National Schools Action Day.”