Better Planet Schools Officer:  Kelly Stapleton

Kelly graduated from the University of Roehampton with a degree in Theology and Religious Studies with Qualified Teacher Status. She began her teaching career in 2002 in London, where her interest in teaching children all about protecting the environment first began. She ran her first Eco Club during lunchtimes and was responsible for coordinating recycling collections across the school, the Green Lunch Box Award scheme and managing the school wildlife garden.

After three years teaching in London, she decided to explore her passion for travel and relocated to the Dominican Republic to experience teaching in a tropical setting. The Caribbean offered many exciting opportunities for outdoor teaching and here Kelly was able to pursue her passion for educating children about the planet.

After three happy years in the Caribbean, Kelly moved on to teaching in the rich biodiversity of Costa Rica, where she enjoyed many exciting school trips to rainforests and volcanoes. “There is nothing quite like teaching inside a classroom when there’s a tropical monsoon outside!”

Kelly’s next teaching destination was Malaysia, which provided many more excellent teaching and learning opportunities due to its megadiverse ecology. She particularly enjoyed organising and coordinating a week-long residential trip to the high-altitude tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands for her Year 5 students.

Kelly then moved on to teach in Australia for the next five years. Here, she took part in many Eco Schools initiatives and supported her Year 4 pupils to perform ‘energy walks’ around the school to check where energy savings could be made.

After moving back to England in 2017 and settling in Kent, Kelly has been teaching across Key Stage 2 and continuing her mission to teach children all about the natural environment and how to save energy. Over the course of her 20 year teaching career she has taught every year group from Reception to Year 6 and strongly believes that every child, no matter their age, can make responsible choices and small changes to protect their planet.

She is extremely excited to join Better Planet Schools and to support teachers in delivering high quality lessons that carry very important messages.