The Framework

The purpose of a framework is to facilitate interaction between students and teachers, with the students leading the way, and the teachers facilitating them.

It is up to the school to decide how they would like to form their action team (framework), but it should have the following guiding principles/capabilities in its design:

The framework must have the following elements

- It has to provide a forum for students to discuss their priorities amongst themselves. This can be facilitated by a teacher/parent with class discussion, moderations, etc.., but they must remember to allow the students to make their own decisions and foster their creativity.

- There must be a forum where the views of the students can be exchanged with the other stakeholders and decision makers within the school system. It is worth noting that in order to facilitate effective communication, representatives can be chosen for each stakeholder group so that discussions can be made fluidly. The outcomes, comments and criticism of these meetings should be noted.

- Monitoring and evaluation- A transparent and relevant audit before and after any project/initiative is necessary in order to record progress. The first time a school starts to take part, they should identify one or several environmental issues as well as a means to monitor how they improve. Not only will this provide in some cases a first indication of the environmental impact of a school, but it should serve to help clarify reporting lines and data sources for future audits and projects.