John Burton – Conservation veteran John Burton, co-founder with his wife, Viv, of the World Land Trust – died on Biodiversity Day. You can read an appreciation of his life here.
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Working Report – The Sustainability and Climate Change Education Working Group is a collaboration between Leeds Trinity University and the Teacher Development Trust. It brings together expertise across nursery, primary, secondary and higher education with businesses, the Environment Agency and the charity sector to respond to the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy launched in April 2022. In a new report, it shares its thoughts and recommendations to guide the effective implementation of the Strategy (2022).
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Scarlett’s Bill – Working with Teach the Future, Scarlett Westbrook helped to draft the first student-written parliamentary bill to change an English Education Act. She was the subject of a recent BBC news report. In this, she said that the education system should feature the climate crisis in every subject including vocational subjects, such as engineering. By doing this, she added, students will be prepared to deal with the effects of climate change.
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Critical Curiosity – SEEd says that its Cabinet of Sustainability Curios is a growing collection of items designed to provoke thinking and discussion around sustainability. Paired with the critical thinking questions on its website, SEEd invites us to investigate what the objects mean to us, how they are used, and what impact they have on the Earth. We can also send in suggestions and add to this free teaching resource. SEEd also suggests creating such cabinets in classrooms using suggestions from pupils or students. More detail here.
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Transforming Practice – The Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge is running a module on Environmental Sustainability Education in schools as part their Transforming Practice Masters programme, starting in October 2022. Led by Dr Elsa Lee (ESE specialist and NAEE trustee) and Dr Joel Chalfen (Drama specialist), this module will take an interdisciplinary approach to exploring how to realise policy initiatives like the English climate change and sustainability strategy in schools. Over 8 weeks it will explore some of the background to environmental sustainability education, consider a range of models of teaching ESE in active ways and the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to ESE that are exemplified by innovative drama education practices. The module is designed to fit around the school week and terms, with two Saturday half-day sessions, and 4 online evening sessions. You can find out more and sign up here.
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Transforming Learning – The 13th Annual TEESNet Conference – Re-Imagining Teacher Education: Transforming Learning for a Just and Sustainable World – takes place on 28th September at Liverpool Hope University. You can book here.
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Cwricwlwm Newydd i Gymru – The Welsh Government’s Culture Division has commissioned GEM Cymru to create resources which support learning provision in museums in Wales, with an emphasis on the new Curriculum for Wales. This includes an action research micro grant programme for Welsh museums. The purpose is to encourage innovative thinking, creative practice and evaluation of new resources for Curriculum for Wales specific activities that museums can deliver to schools. Accredited museums in Wales can apply for grants of up to £1,200 for activity which takes place between September 2022 to January 2023. More details on the website.
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UN Simulation – In this simulation from Climate Interactive, students take on the role of UN delegates at an emergency climate summit, working together to try to reach a global agreement that successfully keeps climate change well below 2˚C and aims to stay within 1.5˚C. These are the international goals formally recognized in the Paris climate agreement.
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Book Discussions – UCL’s Development Education Research Centre [DERC] has announced its first webinar dates for the autumn:
- 1st November: David Dixon on his book Leadership for Sustainability: Saving the Planet One School at A Time
- 7th December: Stephen Scoffham & Steve Rawlinson on their book Sustainability Education: A Classroom Guide for Sustainability
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Threatened Flora –Trained volunteers from the Breckland Flora Group, coordinated by Plantlife, have been licensed to carefully collect the seeds of fifteen priority local wild flowers found on remnants of heathland habitat between Mildenhall, Thetford and Brandon. These collections are supporting the Millennium Seed Bank’s UK Threatened Flora Project which aims to enhance the quantity, quality and resilience of seed collections for UK plants at risk of national extinction due to environmental change and the small or fragmented nature of their populations. Because of the rarity of these plants, the volunteers are trained to ensure their seed collections do not affect the viability of the local populations and the plants are closely monitored as part of a year-round ongoing Breckland conservation programme. More detail here.
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Put out Green Flags – As the Canal and River Trust celebrates its tenth anniversary, it has secured a further 125 miles of Green Flag waterways across England and Wales, with 565 miles now holding the international quality mark for parks and green spaces. The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the UK. There is a list of ten free things to do along the waterway network.
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National Hedge Week – National Hedgerow Week takes place from 17 to 25 September. The theme is raising awareness of the benefits of hedgerows. CPRE says that “not only do hedgerows provide vital habitats for an array of wildlife, but they improve soil quality and capture carbon from the atmosphere, but nearly 50% of our hedgerows have been lost since the end of the Second World War.” That’s why CPRE is calling on the government to increase the hedgerow network by 40% by 2050. There’s a petition.
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Lions for Sale or Rent – 12 African lions in the Lahore Safari Park are being auctioned off to make money, and to provide space for younger animals. Keeping lions, tigers and other “exotic animals” is common among the wealthy in Pakistan as a sign of status. The park’s deputy director is quoted as saying: “We are short of space and facing breeding issues.” Environmental activists are not amused. Pakistan Today covered the story.
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Food and Power – Agrivoltaics is the use of solar panels in agriculture to produce both food and electricity. Around the world, the practice has several names: agrisolar, agrophotovoltaics, solar sharing, and PV agriculture. Treehugger has a feature on this.