Luton and Peshawar Initiative for Sustainability (1997 – 1998)

© Raglan School WWF
In 1997, Luton’s new unitary authority came together with WWF-UK to work on the pioneering Luton and Peshawar Initiative for Sustainability (LAPIS) project that involved schools, communities and local government departments working together to address local needs and realise more secure and worthwhile ways of living. Luton is a multi-cultural urban centre located north of London. Peshawar is in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. LAPIS linked the two communities to learn from each other as they pioneered new kinds of sustainable development. Some Luton schools had already worked with LAPIS on a pilot phase of the project. This phase of the project offered an opportunity for other schools to become involved.
LAPIS offered schools:

• new ways of teaching about the local area and a distant locality in Pakistan;
• new resource materials: maps, pictures, stories, case studies, etc;
• exciting ways of delivering key aspects of core and foundation subjects;
• an approach to cross-curricular themes such as environmental education, health education and citizenship;
• cooperation with the local community and local authority on values and issues of shared concern;
• ways of improving the delivery of school policies on equal opportunities, community links, and personal and social education;
• a relevant way of learning through school-to-school linking with communities in Pakistan;
• opportunities for curriculum and professional development and the possibility of financial support; and
• a chance to contribute to a published curriculum pack.

Participating schools sent teachers on a course of professional development run by WWF-UK and Luton Borough Council. Schools then submitted a development plan that showed how education for sustainability would be incorporated into the ethos, curriculum and management of the school. The plans outlined how provision would reflect the aims of LAPIS, with teachers and pupils learning alongside the local community and local authority, and sharing experience with and learning from the linked schools in Peshawar.

Project participation was intended to help schools to develop more relevant provision that delivered the National Curriculum while also taking account of local issues and international perspectives. LAPIS fostered the kinds of professional and whole school development that Ofsted seeks, and linked schools and their communities in ways that support Local Education Authority policies about the school in the community, the community in the school, equal opportunities and community development. LAPIS reflected England's national strategy for environmental education. It was developed in response to Agenda 21