Air Quality campaigns for schools

We encourage schools and school children to take action to help reduce air pollution within our borough.

• Ask About Asthma campaign
• Clean Air Day
• Nation-wide and local initiatives

Clean Air Day

Clean Air Day is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign. It aims to inspire everyone to take action to help reduce air pollution and usually involves hundreds of events around the country including many in our borough.

Clean Air Day - Thursday 20 June 2024

This year our theme for Clean Air Day is Clean, Sustainable and Active Travel. 

According to official data, cars and vans are the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and some types of air pollution in the UK, harming both our health and the planet. It is important to take action to reduce emissions produced by these vehicles. Whenever possible, we should look to take the cleanest and most sustainable methods of travel to our destination.

We encourage all schools to take part by:

• Running poster making sessions for your pupils on the theme ‘Drawing Breath’ and send entries in to our school air quality competition
• Organising activities for year groups or the whole school throughout the week of Clean Air Day, or at any convenient time. Download a learning session pack from the campaign coordinator

Why not:

• Run a lesson or assembly or learning session - both are zip file downloads
• Plan activities to support walking, cycling and scooting to school - from TfL
• Make your own low pollution map to raise awareness of how to reduce personal exposure, especially by avoiding busy roads
• Get free information about air pollution and how to tackle it from the London Schools’ Pollution Helpdesk

Use the resources to help spread the word to parents, carers, and the school community through social media and a newsletter article. 

You could:

• Raise their awareness about air pollution (pdf, 108 KB)
• Advertise the low pollution route finder to help to reduce exposure whilst walking and cycling to school

Find out more information about what is being done in the borough for Clean Air Day.

Ask About Asthma campaign

The Ask About Asthma campaign will run from Monday 11 to Sunday 17 September 2023. The campaign aims to raise awareness about children and young people's asthma, increase understanding that air pollution can trigger attacks, and to improve young people's asthma care. 

Campaign aims

The campaign encourages children and young people, their families, and those involved in their care, to ensure four simple and effective measures to help them control their asthma:

1. Get an asthma action plan in place
2. Understand how to use inhalers correctly
3. Schedule an asthma review – every year and after every attack
4.  Consider air pollution as an asthma trigger

Each day there are new webinars, podcasts, videos and blogs about different topics – all are free and details are given in the online schedule. There is also a free online conference on Thursday 14 September which you can sign up for.

Free downloadable resources from the organisers include toolkits for schools and youth groups, and presentations for schools to run a lesson and/or assembly.

There are lots of other free resources available which may be of interest, including:

• Asthma facts sheet
• Asthma UK’s asthma action plan for children and air pollution and asthma webpage
• Short videos about asthma care
  

This year’s campaign theme “Widening our view” aims to shine a light on the wider factors of children and young people’s asthma care including housing, mould and vaping. You can read more information on damp, mould and condensation in private housing, the effects of vaping for young people, and air pollution as an asthma trigger.

Nation-wide and local initiatives

There are various activities and campaigns for schools that we promote which include:

• Walking initiatives
• Cycling initiatives
• Scooter training (for year 2 children)
• Smarter driving initiatives to promote cleaner air around schools

Our schools travel planning page helps schools promote active travel by participating in cycling and walking campaigns and producing a travel plan.

View Schools’ air quality for more information about current and recent projects for schools.