County Durham school drops plan to turn off heat on climate ‘blue nose day’

Wolsingham school’s carbon-cutting event had been planned by pupils but parents raised concerns
Mark Brown North of England correspondentWed 16 Oct 2024 05.30 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Oct 2024 06.03 EDTShareA school has made a U-turn on a student-led plan to turn the heating off for a “blue nose” climate action day after parents raised concerns.
The heating was due to be turned off at Wolsingham school, County Durham, on Friday but the plan has now been postponed until the summer term of next year when it is likely to be warmer.
A letter to parents and guardians had alerted them to the proposal, recommending that their children should on Friday wear a black V-neck jumper, extra-thick socks and layers such as a vest or plain white T-shirt. The letter added: “Please note hoodies will not be permitted and blazers should be worn.”
The blue nose day plan entailed the heating being turned off to conserve energy and was being done to reduce the school’s carbon footprint and “raise the importance of being more sustainable”.
In a second letter this week the school said the event would not go ahead as planned after “speaking to several parents regarding their concerns”. It said the day had been planned by students in the school’s climate action team.
“The event was designed to raise the importance in our school community of being more sustainable and in a small way reduce the school’s carbon footprint,” it said. “The date was carefully chosen by looking at average temperatures by month and short-term weather forecasts, indicating a temperature in Wolsingham of approx. 15C on Friday.
“After careful consideration and speaking to several parents regarding their concerns, the blue nose day scheduled for Friday 18 October 2024 will now not go ahead as planned. School will be open as usual, with staff and students not needing to wear extra layers of clothing and with the heating switched on as on a normal school day.”
The letter said students on the climate action team had “played a key part in making Wolsingham school more sustainable in other ways over the last few academic years. This includes the installation of filtered water coolers, meaning the amount of single-use plastic, from water bottles, has been reduced to extremely close to zero.”
skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Down to Earth
Free weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion
The plan had also attracted some criticism and derision on social media from people whose children did not attend the school, whose origins date back to 1614.