Planet Earth Games: why your college should get involved

This year’s Planet Earth Games were an amazing celebration of social action, where students across the country came together to participate in the UK's largest sustainability competition.

I had the privilege to work with many ambitious students across Leeds City College as they undertook their journey to become sustainable champions. The competition results were announced in April and, while my students and I didn't clinch the top spot, securing fifth place was still a fantastic achievement.

Despite the competitive nature of the games, the students took part because of a deeper cause; climate change and their passion for making a difference in their local communities. From transforming community spaces to campaigning for waste reduction and promoting slow fashion, sustainability has been at the heart of every project and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are a few examples of the students’ work.

Transforming a community garden

The ESOL students developed their skills in gardening, horticulture, recycling and upcycling.

The community garden has become a place of relaxation.

Building on the success of a previous project, I was inspired to undertake a new community garden initiative with a group of ESOL students at Leeds City College’s North Street Campus. The students developed their gardening, horticulture and upcycling skills, gaining insights into the different ways they can be more environmentally-conscious in the future.

It was great to see them stepping out of the classroom to collaborate with their peers, which resulted in a wonderful space for relaxation and socialising. Gaining hands-on experience – and seeing their efforts flourish into something that positively impacts the campus community – has also boosted their self-esteem.

Championing sustainability

Another garden was transformed at Leeds City College’s Joseph Priestley Centre, Beeston.

Students created safety blankets out of crisp packets.

I was impressed to see a different group of students at Leeds City College’s Joseph Priestley Centre, Beeston, work hard throughout the year with another garden transformation. The project provided them with invaluable opportunities to engage with local organisations like Leeds Wood Recycling, where they learnt the importance of repurposing materials and supporting local businesses. The campus garden project inspired the students to explore more ways to be resourceful by creating safety blankets from recycled crisp packets, as well as setting up clothes and book swap shops. Taking part in these activities encouraged them to be more open-minded about shopping second-hand.

Encouraging new festival habits

Councillor, Paul Wray, attended the celebration event to see the students' festival banners.

Another inspiring project involved Business and Engineering students at Printworks Campus where we collaborated with the sustainable fashion brand, TOM-O, to create banners for Leeds Festival out of discarded tents. The collaboration enabled the students to pour their creativity into making eye-catching designs that carry a powerful message about waste reduction, encouraging fellow festival-goers to rethink their habits. It was wonderful to see the students proudly showcasing their banners in front of guests at a subsequent celebration event, where Councillor, Paul Wray, also shared his praise.

Embracing new challenges ahead

These highlights of the competition are just a small number of the incredible projects I’ve been involved in.

My work in further education continues to show me the importance of instilling social action habits in the young people of today. By providing them with access to enjoyable activities, we can continue to educate learners on important issues whilst helping them to build skills for life.

The Planet Earth Games projects have shown that anyone, from any background, with varying interests in environmental issues, can do something that contributes to sustainability, even if it’s a small change. Social action is about developing the young people doing the activities. To this end, witnessing the leadership skills of the students has been wonderful.

If you’re interested in getting your college involved in the Planet Earth Games, one piece of advice I’d give is to look at creative ways to promote the competition to your students. Engaging them early with fun and innovative promotional strategies will help ensure the event becomes well-known across your college community and eagerly anticipated over years to come.

While the above examples only provide a glimpse into these projects, seeing the amount of interest and dedication shown by the students throughout the games has been incredible. I look forward to next year’s competition!

Florence Smith-Drayson is the Social Action Leadership Coordinator at Leeds City College

Find out more about Planet Earth Games 2024/25