Climate change and sustainability are becoming harder to ignore in education. Young people are talking about it, schools are acting on it (in various different ways!) and national policy is nudging education settings towards climate action plans and sustainability leadership. (Some context can be found at the NAEE site here.)
But I do keep getting asked one question: Is Ofsted beginning to look at climate change
The short answer is that the evidence is not there yet – not directly – but it is shifting.
What are Ofsted reports actually saying?
I had a look at several recent inspection reports and it shows that sustainability and climate-related activity is beginning to appear.
When it’s mentioned, it tends to be where you would expect:
Pupil leadership and personal development (eco-councils, recycling, gardening)
Enrichment activities or projects
Geography or science units that explore environmental issues
Outdoor learning and care for the school environment
These references are generally positive. Inspectors often praise pupils’ attitudes, responsibility and engagement. Or, they note instances where environmental awareness and sustainability work are taking place well — for example in this early years inspection report.
“Pupils learn to be conscientious citizens through meaningful projects on climate change, community action, road safety and gender equality.”
But what’s striking is how as we can see in these reports (and others) sustainability is being framed. It is rarely described as learning and instead sits in behaviour, pastoral care or development.
Sustainability: visible, but not evaluated
In most reports, sustainability is acknowledged as something schools do, rather than something pupils learn.
There is very little commentary on:
how environmental or climate learning is sequenced
how understanding builds over time
whether pupils’ knowledge is secure or developing
how sustainability fits within the wider curriculum intent
Inspectors are noticing activity, but they are not yet scrutinising climate education as a defined area of curriculum quality.
This leaves schools in an uncertain position:
Is this something we’ll be judged on? What does “good” actually look like? Are we doing enough — or too much?
Why this matters (even if it’s not inspected yet)
Inspection frameworks don’t exist in isolation. In my experience they can reflect, but often lag slightly behind, wider system change.
Right now, several things are happening at once:
Schools are being encouraged to appoint sustainability leads
Young people’s concern about climate change is well documented
This then mirrors the way that school sport and out of hours curriculum was framed twenty years ago. It seems like early days- but we know Oftsted are beginning to take more notice.
A system in transition, not contradiction
Current Ofsted reports are not saying:
“Climate education doesn’t matter.”
What they really say is something more than this:
Schools are experimenting and responding
Good practice exists, but it’s uneven
There is no shared language yet for describing quality
Sustainability sits between culture, curriculum and leadership
Where the gap is — and the opportunity
The gap isn’t that schools aren’t doing enough.
The gap is that what schools are doing doesn’t quite have the framework of learning to sit within.
We know that we need to push for sustainability and climate education to be:
described with curriculum intent
linked to progression and understanding
explained confidently by leaders and teachers
climate education currently remains vulnerable to being seen as “extra”, “enrichment” or “nice to have”.
That’s the opportunity as well as the risk.
So… is Ofsted beginning to look at climate change?
At the moment:
Ofsted is noticing sustainability
Inspectors are acknowledging environmental activity
Climate-related work is being lightly mentioned
What we’re not seeing yet is:
direct evaluation of climate education quality
clear inspection language around sustainability learning
consistent expectations across schools
In other words: not yet zero scrutiny – but not zero interest either.
What schools can take from this now
Rather than waiting for inspection requirements to catch up, schools can use this moment to:
be clearer about where sustainability sits in their curriculum
move from projects to purposeful learning
articulate what pupils are learning and why it matters
connect environmental action with wellbeing, citizenship and future skills
This will build confidence, coherence and clarity.
Final thought
Every school leader, teacher and governor knows the pressure that Ofsted can bring, and the pull of not wanting to do something ‘purely for Ofsted’. But we know that if Ofsted does begin to look more closely at climate education in the coming years, it’s important that schools are not just box ticking. It needs to becomes an integral part of a system that is genuinely tackling the challenges, and making the most of the opportunity it can present.
Those schools doing it well are the ones who can explain:
what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how it’s helping pupils understand the world they’re growing up in.
That feels like a direction of travel worth paying attention to.
