Sustainability
We're proud to be a part of Lift Schools' Sustainable School programme and have taken steps to reduce our building and community's impact on the environment.
At Lift Lea Forest, we're deeply committed to forging a sustainable future and our journey towards net-zero emissions is a vibrant, school-wide effort. We're actively implementing projects to reduce our environmental footprint, from energy efficiency initiatives to waste reduction programs and sustainable travel. Our dedication extends beyond the school gates through our proud participation in initiatives like Living Streets, encouraging active travel and healthier lifestyles, and the Mode Shift STARS awards, recognising our success in promoting sustainable transportation choices within our community. Together, we're empowering our students to become environmentally conscious citizens and creating a greener, healthier tomorrow.
We have signed up to an exciting project with Airly as part of the Let Schools Breathe campaign and will be actively monitoring the air quality around our site in the coming months to help further reduce pollution and traffic around our school during busy periods.
You can check the local air quality on this page clicking on the Air Quality chart this is updated throughout the day.
Our building has been continuously upgraded with improved energy efficient lighting, heating and glazing to reduce our buildings energy usage, carbon footprint and impact on the environment.
In September 2021 our building will undergo significant upgrades to its roof structure and insulation to improve the buildings energy efficiency further and reduce our need for internal heating.
Our new extensions (New Admin Block, Library and Classrooms) will make use of improved construction materials, energy efficient heat pumps and LED lighting to further reduce their impact on the environment.
During closed periods we actively ensure that the building is using the minimum amount of energy required by switching of all none required lighting, devices and heating this ensures that we can save energy, reduces pollution and money spent on utilities and services.
We have recently added solar panels to help generate electricity for our school and water harvesting to our building to help capture waste rain water which is reused in our allotments and gardens.
We are part of the Department of Education's Net Zero accelerator scheme for 2025 and through our pupil led project Bright Sparks have taken several steps to reduce our energy usage in and around our estate.
You can find out how much energy our building uses on the Energy Sparks Website.
We're proud to be a part of the Lift School's Sustainable School programme and have taken steps to reduce our building and community's impact on the environment.
We are working hard to recycle reuse and reduce consumption of materials at Lea Forest. So far this year we have recycled :
250kg's of dead and used batteries - March 2025
1600 Kg (8 dumpsters) of waste paper and cardboard - March 2025
From April 2025 we will be recycling food waste onsite and asking staff and children to seperate items into our new food waste bins which will then be collected by our partners for composting and energy recovery.
Lea Forest - Active Travel Plan
Lea Forest participates in the ModeShift STARS Programme and currently working towards our Gold Star accreditation.
ModeShift STARS inspires children to travel to school sustainably, actively, responsibly and safely by championing walking, scooting and cycling. Mode Shift STARS supports pupils’ wellbeing, helps to reduce congestion at the school gates and improve road safety and air quality.
We actively encourage our Lea Forest Academy families to walk or cycle to school as part of a healthy active lifestyle.
What is active travel?
Active travel means walking or cycling as a means of transport in order to get to a particular destination such as work, the shops or to visit friends. It does not cover walking and cycling done purely for pleasure, for health reasons, or simply walking the dog. Active travel can be for complete journeys or parts of a journey.
What are the benefits?
Active travel can:
What can you do?
Consider how you currently travel: have you thought about parking or getting off the bus ten minutes away from where you’re going and walking the last bit?
Encourage your child to use healthy ways to travel and record their trips to school on our travel tracker.
Follow Birmingham Connected @bhamconnected to see how you could incorporate Active Travel into your journey's around Birmingham and the West Midlands.
We as a school are committed to promoting active and safe travel. Throughout this year we have run the following activities to support healthy and sustainable travel:
We are always looking for new ideas and how we can further reduce pollution and traffic around our school site and would welcome opinions on how we could tackle travel and transport issues. Therefore if you have any ideas on how we could further promote active travel, please feel free to email contactus@liftleaforest.org
At Lift Lea Forest we actively encourage our pupils and staff to walk, scoot or cycle to school as they:
How do we do this?
We understand that sometimes there is no alternative to driving to school.
Please note that the decision on whether a child is competent to cycle or scoot to school is for the parent(s) or carer(s) to make. The school has no liability for any consequences arising from this decision.
Show you care, park elsewhere
At Lea Forest we ask that all of our community members sign up to our Road Safety Pledge and park in a safe and legal manner when visiting our school, dropping off or collecting your child.
Please make sure that you keep our entrances clear and don't park on the zig zag markings or cause an obstruction by blocking drives or the roads around our school.
We work in partnership with the local parking enforcement team from West Midlands Police and will report any vehicle that is parked in a dangerous manner.
What we ask of parents.
What we ask of parents.
What we ask of pupils.
Anything Else?
Families with transport difficulties are asked to speak with our Pastoral team. We are able to provide pick up and drop off services using the school minibus on a first come first served basis for families that have no alternative means of getting to or from the school site and will do our best to support families experiencing difficulties.
We also work in partnership with the University of Birmingham Birmingham City Council and Airly as part of the #LetSchoolsBreathe and #BrumBreathes campaign to monitor air pollution around our school site and will be working with parents and community leaders to further reduce levels this year.
We're proud to be a part of the Lift School's Sustainable School programme and have taken steps to reduce our building and community's impact on the environment.
We're also working with Living Street UK to record our journeys to school this year and help reduce the number of car journeys that are made to Lea Forest.
We are thrilled to announce that our school is officially on the journey to achieving the prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag Award! Leading the charge is our fantastic Eco-Council, a dedicated team of student representatives and staff committed to making our school and local community more sustainable.
The Eco-Council is actively identifying environmental priorities—from reducing waste and increasing biodiversity to saving energy. They are developing an action plan, reviewing our environmental impact, and leading exciting projects across the school. Follow our progress as we work together to become a truly 'green' school, fostering a generation of environmentally responsible citizens!
If you have any ideas that could help improve our school environment please let Mrs Dowling or your class teacher know.
The Eco-Schools programme provides a simple, seven-step framework that answers this question whilst empowering young people to make a difference in their school, local community and beyond. Since 1994, millions of young people around the world have worked through the Eco-Schools Seven Steps before being recognised for their efforts with a prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag.
Schools connect their activities to three or more of the Ten Eco-Schools Topics. These topics break large, global issues like climate change into more manageable and directed themes that prompt young people to consider environmental changes that they can make in their school and everyday lives.
More Information about Eco Schools can be found online.
Lift Lea Forest,
Hurstcroft Road,
Kitts Green, Birmingham
B33 9RD
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