Previous school air quality projects

Air quality monitoring

We have an on-going programme of air quality monitoring in the borough including measurement of the most common pollutants Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) and Particulate Matter (PM). Our monitoring network has 64 sites across the borough plus two automatic sites and 20 Breathe London sites. Further details and links showing current levels can be found on our air pollution and Air Quality Action Plan web pages.

In January 2022 we began a 3 year programme to monitor worst case scenario 24/7 for a full year outside all state schools within the borough.

A few independent schools are also included. Approximately 25 schools per year will be monitored.

Monitoring commenced at the beginning of January 2022 and will be completed at the end of December 2024. Spot check PM10 and PM2.5 was also carried out – this gives an indication of particle level on the day at that location.

Air quality generally is improving borough wide, including along roads where schools are sited. Monitoring took place outside the school, generally on the pavement near the main school gate or if bordering a busy road on the pavement between the busy road and the school, to represent worse-case scenario.

All schools, including those on busy roads, once bias adjusted for greater accuracy, recorded levels below, or well below, the annual NO₂ UK limit value, the level the UK is duty bound to achieve. The annual limit values are 40 ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) for NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and PM10's (particles of 10 microns and below) and 20ug/m3 for PM2.5's ( particles of 2.5 microns and below).

It is important to note that NO₂ drops off quickly with distance from source, which in this borough is largely traffic, so this indicates that both within the school playgrounds and within school buildings at all schools in Richmond borough, levels of air quality are likely to be within UK limit values.

It is useful to understand that children may well be exposed to higher levels on their way to/from school particularly if they travel by car on busy roads. Walking or scootering along backroads, where possible, is a good way to reduce exposure and is highly recommended.

Monitoring results

View the monitoring results for 2024:

View the monitoring results for 2023:

View the monitoring results for 2022:

Air quality audits

Comprehensive monitoring has been carried out at schools sited on major roads to complement the Mayor of London’s Air Quality audits at East Sheen and St Stephen’s Primary Schools. At each school, this involved monitoring NO₂, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ at nine sites located inside and around the school grounds. These two schools were considered by the Mayor to be the most likely to record the highest pollution levels due to their locations close to the South Circular and the A316 respectively. However, only one site within the curtilage of both school grounds recorded levels above the UK/EU limit value of 40ug/m3 for NO₂ and this was on the boundary fence near the main entrance, so inaccessible to pupils for most of the day.

Other schools in the borough that have taken part in air quality monitoring are:

The Queens C of E Primary School, Kew
St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School, Richmond
St Mary’s and St Peter’s C of E Primary School, Teddington
St Osmund’s Catholic Primary School, Barnes
Bishop Perrin School, Twickenham (outside only)

All the sites monitored at the above schools measured below or well below 40 ug/m³ for NO₂ which is the UK/EU legal limit value that should not be exceeded on grounds of health, which is a positive result.

Any school in the borough interested in monitoring air quality is welcome to get in touch. We can supply three diffusion tubes (to measure NO₂) for a month for air quality monitoring science projects. Supporting materials and guidance about how the tubes work and where to site them, can also be given. Interested schools can email the Air Quality Officer at Richmond Council.

Schools in the borough also participate in occasional research and development projects, such as one instigated by the Mayor of London and carried out by Kings College London in 2019, which investigated 250 children’s exposure to air pollution across London. 50 pupils from East Sheen Primary School participated in the project for West London by wearing customised backpack monitors on their journeys to and from school for two weeks. More details about that project can be found on the Mayor of London’s website and in the final project report.

Cleaner Air 4 Schools projects

In 2015/16 LBRuT won funding from the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund to carry out a Cleaner Air 4 Schools (CA4S) project to raise awareness within the school community about air quality. This was organised with 3 other London boroughs and was delivered with help from the London Sustainability Exchange (LSx). The aim was to educate and inform children about the causes and effects of air pollution on health, and involved air quality monitoring with the pupils in and around their schools and along their walking routes to school. This taught them how to reduce the sources of pollution and ways to reduce their own exposure in a fun and informative way. It involved pupils from St Stephens Primary School, Holy Trinity Primary School, Darell Primary School, and Sheen Mount. The final report (pdf, 1.3 MB) provides background information about air pollution, monitoring and mapping, details of the engagement and audit activities, together with audit results and recommendations.

Following the success of this project, we commissioned LSx to help run another CA4S project to complete work with Darell Primary and to include Queen’s C of E School and East Sheen Primary, all bordering on roads with higher levels of air pollution. Read the final report (pdf, 4.3 MB) for this second project.

A further resource for interested school staff is the Mayor of London’s Cleaner Air for Primary Schools Toolkit (pdf, 10.9 MB) which is linked to the National Curriculum and provides a lesson plan and suggestions for citizen science activities.

School air quality assessments

Primary school assessments

To build on the school air quality audit scheme started by the Mayor of London (2017–2020, more details below), we re-commenced the school air quality assessment programme in late 2021 once the easing of COVID restrictions allowed. Primary schools located in areas with higher pollution and/or with older school buildings are currently being prioritised. Any school that wishes to be considered for a school assessment can email the coordinating officer.

The aim of each assessment is to:

Identify sources of outdoor air pollution and potential exposure by the primary school children
Check emissions from boilers, and heating/cooling systems within the school site
Identify and recommend potential measures that could be taken to reduce sources and exposure
Increase awareness of air pollution within the school community, including how personal actions can influence emission levels and exposure

An individual assessment report provides bespoke recommendations for reducing emissions and exposure to air pollution around each school.

The recommendations proposed after assessing a school may include:

Adding green infrastructure in playgrounds to help reduce and filter vehicle fumes
Encouraging students to walk, cycle and scoot to school and to use less polluted routes
Ventilation of rooms close to roads is via upper windows and maximised when children are not present and traffic levels are low
Ensuring that cleaning is carried out in the evening and ideally uses eco products to reduce the associated pollution and exposure by children
Reducing deliveries by amalgamating orders whenever possible
Engine-idling action activities to reduce emissions during drop off and collection times

Visit School air quality assessments for more information about: how we run school air quality assessments; key air pollutants and how we monitor them; the UK’s air quality standards; school travel and ways to reduce air quality in and around your school.

In 2017 the Mayor of London launched a school air quality audit programme for 50 primary schools in the worst polluted areas across London. Richmond Council succeeded in getting two schools in LBRuT included - East Sheen and St Stephen’s Primary Schools.

The overall recommendations proposed after auditing the schools included:

Moving school entrances and play areas away from busy roads
Local road changes including better road layouts
Restricting the most polluting vehicles around schools and pedestrianising areas by school entrances where practical
Reducing emissions from boilers, kitchens and other sources
Adding green infrastructure along busy roads to help reduce and filter fumes

Each of the 50 audited London schools was awarded Mayoral funding which was match funded by the council. As part of the audit recommendations, green screening was installed at both schools in the borough and an air filtration system (AFS) was loaned to each school for a year. You can read the reports for schools audited by the Mayor of London in our borough which include the recommendations made for East Sheen Primary School and St Stephen’s Primary School.

Nursery audits

Following the primary school audits, London’s Mayor extended the project to carry out air quality audits for 20 nurseries in London. These included Windham Nursery in this borough which is close to the A316 road. The Mayor of London’s website gives an overview of this audit programme extension.

The main emphasis behind this second round of audits was to trial 6 different air filtration systems at 6 different nursery schools over a 6 month period to see how they each performed and to what extent they reduced indoor air pollution.

Other recommendations proposed after auditing the nurseries were similar to those for primary schools:

A six-month indoor air filtration system (AFS) trial at six nurseries (as advised above)
School Streets – closing roads to traffic at nursery drop-off and collection times

The results of the AFS trial showed that the filtration system worked well in reducing fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and to a lesser extent Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) inside the nurseries.

The audit report for Windham Nursery gives details about how the audit was carried out, the results from that process and the recommendations made. Following the audit, it is anticipated that the school’s green screening will be improved and the recommended actions will be investigated as implementation is dependent on funding.

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Up to: Schools air quality

Updated: 23 June 2026