London Schools Pollution Helpdesk provided free support, advice, and practical guidance to help improve air quality at schools, particularly those in the most polluted areas.
Children in London are almost four times more likely to go to a school in an area where air pollution exceeds the World Health Organization guidelines, and are showing significantly smaller lung volume compared to their peers in the rest of England.
Global Action Plan's clean air work is led by our vision of healthy, connected, low-carbon communities, where people breathe clean air at home and in their local neighbourhood.
With the support of the Mayor of London and Impact on Urban Health, we created the London Schools Pollution Helpdesk, which had the ambition of accelerating the improvement of air quality for all of London’s schools, by offering practical help and guidance, particularly for schools in areas most affected by pollution.
Working directly with the London School’s Pollution Helpdesk was very helpful in making the focus on air quality a whole school focus – it wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Participating school
194
schools contacted London Schools Pollution Helpdesk in Year one
105
schools contacted London Schools Pollution Helpdesk in Year 2
20
media publications featured the London Schools Pollution helpdesk when it launched, as well as BBC London Radio and London Live TV. The story received coverage globally with a total estimated reach of 58.7m, of which 726k was in London.
7
schools attended a Celebration Event at City Hall and met the Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy
The London Schools Pollution Helpdesk:
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provided personalised support to the schools exposed to the highest levels of NOx and PM2.5 and helped willing schools do what they could to improve air quality.
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supported schools already actively tackling air pollution to make faster progress with freely available tools
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offered an activation campaign to encourage inactive schools (and the boroughs overseeing them) to begin to tackle air pollution
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assessed the barriers and aids that most hinder or support schools to take action on pollution
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and provided access to grants for schools to make direct improvements.
Oasis Academy South Bank
At Oasis Academy we worked with the operations team to identify areas of need which included ventilation, lack of awareness about air quality amongst the school community and the close proximity of playgrounds to the main roads. Through the project we supported the school staff to understand indoor air pollution and secure air cleaning devices. A grant provided to the school through the project helped to fund the greening of outdoor space, which included a green screen and planters. The student Climate Committee were engaged towards the end of the project and took their action plan forward with the student body.
Seven schools from the programme were brought together at City Hall for a celebration event in March 2023. Staff and students shared and celebrated their achievements and learnings from the project with other schools and Deputy Mayor Shirley Rodrigues
The celebration event was a real positive, the pupils had a great time and sharing with other schools was really impactful
(following the event) we have been able to go back to the parents who are concerned and hold this project up as an example of what we are doing on the issue of air pollution which has been a real positive.
Participating school
Air pollution is the largest environmental health risk we face today. All schools in London are in areas that exceed the World Health Organizations guidelines for air pollution.
Young people are exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution in their daily lives. The London Schools Pollution Helpdesk is here to help.
Thank you to our partners
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