Climate cafés for school staff

What is a Climate Café?

A Climate Café is a small, facilitated group space where staff are invited to:

• reflect on how the climate crisis is affecting them emotionally
• share thoughts, worries, hopes and uncertainties
• listen to the experiences of others

What Climate Cafés are not

Climate Cafés are not training events, solution-focused workshops, policy or strategy meetings or a therapy group.

When participating in a Climate Cafe there is no expectation to fix the problem, develop initiatives, justify emotional responses or leave with an action plan

The purpose is simply to create space for the emotional realities of the climate crisis to be recognised and shared safely.

Why offer Climate Cafés in schools?

The climate crisis is not only an environmental issue, it is also a deeply emotional one.

Many school staff experience:

• anger, frustration or moral distress
• conflict between professional demands and personal values
• emotional strain from supporting children who are distressed about climate issues

Staff may feel that there is no appropriate place to talk about these feelings or that conversations about climate emotions are either too political, too negative, or too heavy for the workplace

Climate Cafés provide a gentle, contained and professionally facilitated space where these emotional experiences can be acknowledged and held.

What will a Climate Café session look like?

Sessions typically structured as:

• a short opening to establish safety, purpose and shared agreements
• invitations to reflect on personal emotional experiences related to climate and environmental issues
• opportunities for participants to share, if they choose
• respectful listening without interruption, judgement or problem-solving
• closing reflection to support emotional containment before returning to work

No one is required to speak. Listening is a valid and valued way of taking part.