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News Year 9 In-house Internship: Eco-friendly Travel Choices 08.09.2022

On Tuesday morning we were delighted to welcome Mark Tomlinson, Climate Engagement and Behaviour Change Lead for Hammersmith & Fulham Council, to Godolphin to launch our latest In-house Internship for Year 9 pupils, the first internship to be fully integrated into the school curriculum.

Mr Tomlinson explained how the council is developing a strategy to change the behaviour of its residents and encourage them to choose more eco-friendly and ‘green’ ways to travel in the borough. The challenge for our Year 9 students is for them to design a researched and informed council campaign to encourage residents to travel more sustainably. Mr Tomlinson outlined the problems with air pollution in the neighbourhood, the impact of car use in particular, and the success of a Clean Air Neighbourhood scheme in South Fulham versus the challenges and barriers to changing behaviour.

After the presentation our Year 9 students got together in teams to identify the different demographic profiles of groups of residents, including their transport needs and behaviours, and to develop two or three personas to focus on as the target audience for their campaigns. At the end of the school day the students were joined by their parents in their teams in the Bishop Centre to brainstorm and develop ideas for the campaigns focusing on the ‘nudge’ theory approach that develops triggers to directly influence behaviour. Teams of parents and students enthusiastically worked together to develop a campaign idea and paired-up to make  presentations to other teams, to give feedback, test assumptions and to further develop the ideas.

The Year 9 students will now embark on a structured eight-week course to conduct more customer research and to develop their evidence-based ideas further and use nudge theory to create a campaign they will present to the council.

Our Inhouse Internships are the ‘live project’ element of our G&L Futures programme and aim to help our students develop the soft skills they will need in their future careers and to help them become the pioneers of the future.