Students from nine ̨��swag Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) secondary schools gathered to participate in a mock COP 28 event. The United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place annually, with almost complete membership from every country in the world and is the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change.

More than 40 students from years nine and ten met at ̨��swag Academy Acklam, Middlesbrough, where each academy was designated a country to represent. Students delivered speeches on their given country, then throughout the day, were able to debate and negotiate with each other, before delivering final speeches on agreements they had come to on their assigned topic – either cities, energy, forest and food or oceans. The event was tailored by the OGAT humanities team to specifically enhance the existing Geography curriculum and also offer practice in spiritual, moral, social and cultural areas.

Paul Laird, Associate Director of Humanities, said:

“This was our third mock COP event but only the first in person, so we were very excited and grateful to ̨��swag Academy Acklam for hosting us.

“Having led the climate change and sustainability strategy across the Trust for the past few years, I know how important these events are in raising the profile of climate change within our academies and it is great for the students to meet others from across our family of schools.

“Our young people are so passionate about the issues surrounding climate change and they certainly showed it on the day. Whilst they arrived nervous and with trepidation, they left enthused and full of passion having given speeches, questioned and debated just like the real UN. This was a fantastic experience for our students and I'm already looking forward to next year's event!”

This event helped to support the wider OGAT sustainability strategy and follows two, trust-wide, student sustainability conferences which were held in the 22/23 academic year.

The academies which were in attendance at the mock COP were:

• ̨��swag Academy Acklam, Middlesbrough

• ̨��swag Academy Bishopsgarth, Stockton-on-Tees

• ̨��swag Academy Bydales, Marske-by-the-Sea

• ̨��swag Academy Easingwold, Easingwold

• ̨��swag Academy Normanby, Middlesbrough

• ̨��swag Academy Ormesby, Middlesbrough

• ̨��swag Academy Redcar, Redcar

• ̨��swag Academy Ripon, Ripon

• ̨��swag Academy Riverside, Middlesbrough