Empowering young people to accelerate innovation for the future of our planet.
Encompass is a vision for empowering young people globally to reimagine personal and planetary wellbeing
We are approaching climate and sustainability education through a mechanism of empowerment, confident from the research literature that this approach helps to mitigate eco-anxiety.
We are grounded in research, for example using the MIT Sloan, Climate Interactive simulator as a valuable educational tool on which a number of students have trained to be climate ambassadors. Young people have a huge amount to contribute to the sustainable future of our planet. They want to move from protest to being taken seriously, leading the search for solutions.
They tell us “We are the future“
The Latest News from Encompass
Big Garden Birdwatch 2025
Winter can often seem quiet and lifeless, but — if the right attractions, food and water, are consistently left out — it is not difficult to attract a little bit of noise into your back garden! This year, the Big Garden Birdwatch¹ takes place on the 24th, 25th, and...
The 4 elements of Encompass
Voice
Our urgent global challenge requires a multidisciplinary call to action which needs a new type of collaborative space for people to come together, putting the next generation and their voice at the heart of what we do.
Our urgent global challenge requires a multidisciplinary call to action – artists, scientists, technologists, lawyers, linguists, economists, a diversity of communities and citizens of the planet to imagine radical new ways of living.
This needs a new type of collaborative space for people to come together around this challenge, putting the next generation and their voice at the heart of what we do.
The imaginative potential of young people is enormous. While we must not leave the burden solely at their door, they are desperate to have agency in designing their futures.
Our students deserve opportunities to have their ideas taken seriously and their voices heard.
We will embody diversity at every level, with an inclusive working culture.
We hosted a practical research drama workshop with project directors from The Marlowe in the Spring term to share with a group of our students this opportunity to bring their voices to the stage in a new play to be performed at the Marlowe Theatre at the end of August.
This is called The Trials Project. Our students explored how theatre is a powerful way to communicate urgent messages about climate change and our environment. Many of our students from year 9 to year 12 auditioned to take part in the final production with a programme of rehearsals throughout the summer holidays working with professional theatre-makers.
Working closely with our partner organisations we can host many more outreach workshops and performances with a space where we can accommodate more students from across the region- especially those who would not otherwise have access to these opportunities.
This can provide a vital link for our young people to connect with artists and theatre-makers with innovative, practical ways to engage and inspire school students.
In June at the Encompass Festival, students from sciences, drama, music, art, design technology and textiles will be voicing their experiences, sharing their views on research and how the Encompass vision is already making difference to their education & offering them new opportunities.
Innovation
We are embedding innovative critical thinking for youth around modelling future systems. Our year 12 students take part in genuine research projects working with academic support from the Universities.
Research projects
We allow year 12 students an hour every week to take part in genuine research projects working with academic support from the University of Kent, the University of Cambridge and First Light Fusion collaborating with academics at Imperial College.
Our projects run for students to contribute to research on soil biodiversity, crystal growth for sustainability, dust impacts in space, inertial confinement fusion, biodiversity, psychology and air pollution, environmental management.
As a result of these research collaborations, we are preparing papers on biodiversity and wellbeing published in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, new polymorphs with possible medical applications, dust impacts on the International Space Station, new results on soil biodiversity.
We are embedding innovative critical thinking for youth around modelling future systems. For example, we work with the Doughnut Economics Action Lab and the Circular Economy community.
Having been involved in the First Lego League we are now working with the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Big Bang Fair through Engineering UK, to support and develop innovation plans that students have from these competitions to see if their ideas can be brought to fruition. It appears that in the past these ideas are just left. Now students are taking these ideas forward and leading innovations – for example a student who went on to Imperial has established an accelerator lab for climate innovation there, whilst a student we worked with in Berlin developed the website 10000plus.org for improving understanding of trees.
Nature
Acknowledging the interplay between the wellbeing of humans and our planet – creating and spending time in more biodiverse learning environments will benefit the wellbeing of students and their local environment.
The climate emergency is causing distress for young people and affecting their mental health.
Biojoyversity acknowledges the interplay between the wellbeing of humans and our planet. The agency to create more biodiverse learning environments, as well as spending time in those improved spaces, will benefit the wellbeing of students as well as their local environment.
Imagine if this improvement in biodiversity and joyful wellbeing was multiplied across the 30,000 schools in England and beyond.
We can start to make real change across a distributed ecosystem of schools, as testbeds for solutions that could be implemented in wider society.
Primary Inspiration days
These are productive relationship where we work together after inspiration days on projects such as building willow structures and enhancing biodiversity across schools.
We recently welcomed year 5 students from Pilgrim’s Way who spent the morning in our fantastic orchard, pond dipping, bug hunting and filling up amazing bug boxes made in DT and more.
Later, they worked in drama expressing different environments across our Wild Isles through movement and tableau as well as learning songs in the orchard with the music department, coming back together as a whole group to give an inspirational performance in three-part harmony.
Focus days
Similar to our Year 7 Nature Day, we will be running nature activities, musical activities and drama/movement workshops culminating in a biodiversity concert.
This will see more than half the players associated with insects drop down, a third of the bird singers and a quarter of the mammal instrumentalists – the huge loss of rich harmonies will hopefully impact the audience as an experience of the meaning of biodiversity loss.
They come back together in a rousing song and reinforce their potential for increasing biodiversity and making a difference.
Community
We collaborate across Kent with environment, biodiversity and climate groups as well as with the Canterbury Festival, local companies, language and culture partnerships creating opportunities for young people and communities.
We collaborate across Kent with environment, biodiversity and climate groups as well as with the Canterbury Festival, local companies, language and culture partnerships, all creating opportunities for young people and communities.
Our vision is to be an international hub to support and empower youth and communities in our Encompass space which will allow conferences and collaboration on a global scale.
Encompass exists to allow for collaboration and opportunity across communities. Collaboration is key to growing in an ever-changing world -sharing ideas and by extension, improving ideas.
Encompass aims to be a research centre for students and academics to look ahead involving the students whose future it will be.
Our Encompass project now aims to create an innovative space where this initiative can develop and thrive. It aims to combine science, music, arts, ecology, languages and wellbeing in a way that fosters a new interconnected approach to respond to the challenges of the coming decades and encourages activities and initiatives that address the issues of our planet.
Students can understand future challenges through the lens of both arts, languages and sciences and think outside the box for solutions.
Research
We have a major research project in development with Cambridge University to look at direct ways to increase biodiversity and engagement in primary schools.
&
Partnership
We already have ten partner primary schools locally as a pilot who we hope will visit this summer for nature workshops and musical opportunities.
To enable these activities to happen all year round we need a space which can be used by schools, the community and internationally as a student hub for conferences, education and innovation.
The Encompass vision grows from a fundamental belief that the potential, ideas and creativity of young people must not be undervalued.
Given support, young people grow and flourish to do amazing things.
School students devised a new cosmic ray detector which flew in space on TechDemoSat-1. They presented their results to NASA and published in Advances in Space Research. NASA then used this data for radiation monitoring on the Orion capsule in the Artemis programme.
If we give young people the space, environment and encouragement they can turn from eco anxiety into genuine progress, understanding and positive ways forward.
An environment centre for education, engagement, empowerment and enjoyment of nature by schools and communities.
A centre for developing innovative approaches to sustainability education by linking creative arts and sciences.
A STEM solutions centre with support from a distinguished international group of advisors collaborating with industry and academia.