Sustainable schools expert joins as visiting professor

The civil servant who led the government's work to make England's schools and colleges safer and more sustainable is joining the University of Reading as a visiting professor.

Dr Jonathan Dewsbury has spent the past decade at the Department for Education, most recently as Director for Education Estates and Net Zero. In that role, he helped shape a long-term plan for England's 22,000 schools and colleges, covering everything from deteriorating buildings to climate change.

His work includes helping to develop the government's Education Estates Strategy, which sets out how schools and colleges should be rebuilt and designed over the coming years with sustainability and nature at their heart. Under Dr Dewsbury's leadership, the Department for Education worked with the Met Office, the Climate Change Committee and University College London to assess the risks that climate change poses to school and college buildings as well as educational outcomes and the children inside them. That research is now shaping how government targets support to the most vulnerable parts of the education estate.

Dr Dewsbury oversaw the government’s National Education Nature Park scheme, which is now active in more than 9,000 nurseries, schools and colleges, and helped build the Climate Ambassadors network, which was created by the University of Reading in 2022 and now has more than 1,100 trained volunteers working across England. The scheme connects volunteers with nurseries, schools, colleges and special educational needs settings, giving them free climate advice and support. The scheme recently received £1.9 million in new government funding to continue its work through to 2027.

At Reading, Dr Dewsbury will continue his research into nature, sustainability, systems and the built environment. His appointment begins in April 2026, alongside a new role managing the UK Parliamentary estate, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Dr Dewsbury said: "Schools and colleges are a critical enabler for building a sustainable and resilient society. If we design our built environment with nature and sustainability in mind we can change how communities and learners interact with the education estate, thus driving meaningful action towards better educational outcomes and improving young people's physical and mental health. Reading's world-leading expertise in climate science and sustainability makes it the ideal place to develop those ideas further."

Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, Climate Ambassadors co-founder and Head of the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences at the University of Reading, said: “Jon has made a real difference to how schools across England think about climate change. His support for the Climate Ambassadors programme is a great example of the kind of practical, joined-up work that actually moves things forward. Bringing that experience to Reading will strengthen our research and help us have an even greater impact on the ground."