​Learning for Sustainability is a cross-curricular approach to creating coherent, rewarding and transformative learning experiences. It’s all about learners, educators, schools and their wider communities building a socially-just, sustainable and equitable society. It supports an effective whole-school and community approach by weaving together global citizenship, sustainable development education, and outdoor learning.

Learning for Sustainability is an important component of Curriculum for Excellence, an entitlement for learners, and a core part of teachers’ professional standards. It supports the development of knowledge, skills and values at the heart of the curriculum’s four capacities and provides a mechanism for promoting and working towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - all in a wide range of education settings.

Learning for Sustainability has been developed and informed by work of the ‘One Planet Schools Working Group’ and the ‘Learning for Sustainability National Implementation Group’. This culminated in a ‘Vision 2030+’ report in 2016, which recommended that:

1.  All learners should have an entitlement to Learning for Sustainability.
2.  In line with the new GTCS Professional Standards, every practitioner, school and education  leader should demonstrate Learning for Sustainability in their practice.
3.  Every school should have a ‘whole-school’ approach to Learning for Sustainability that is robust, demonstrable, evaluated and supported by leadership at all levels.
4.  All school buildings, grounds and policies should support Learning for Sustainability.
5. ​ A strategic national approach to support for Learning for Sustainability should be established.

Scottish Ministers have accepted all five of the above strategic objectives as well as the other recommendations outlined by both groups.

​A new (June 2019) Learning for Sustainability Action Plan sets out how the Scottish Government will, with others, implement the recommendations of the Vision 2030+ report.

Related links

Current key policy links:

• Learning for Sustainability Action Plan
• Vision 2030+ (2016): Concluding report of the Learning for Sustainability National Implementation Group
• Vision 2030+ Action Plan (May 2019)
• National Improvement Hub: A summary of Learning for Sustainability information and resources

Background policy documents:

• Learning for Sustainability - Report of the One Planet Schools Working Group (2012)
• Scottish Government response to the One Planet Schools Working Group (2013)

Keep up to date:

A summary of Learning for Sustainability resources

A summary of outdoor learning resources

Learning for Sustainability on Twitter at @EdScotLfS #ThisisLfS #TimeforLfS #outdoorlearning 

Read a ​Learning for Sustainability blog.