Global Action Days 2024 – The Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) says that its Global Action Days movement demonstrates how individual actions, no matter how small they seem, can greatly impact our own and the Earth’s well-being. Schools from all over the world, which are part of the Eco-Schools, LEAF and YRE Network, as well as non-FEE programme schools, are invited to join in the programmes running from April 22nd to May 3rd, 2024.
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Word of the Year – Climate Change is OUP’s children’s word of the year. Not everyone sees this as a positive development. The runners-up were war and coronation. OUP said:
“The research, which surveyed opinions from over 5,000 children across the UK aged 6-14, revealed young people’s desire for action with emotive words such as ‘need’ and ‘important’ occurring frequently in their statements. Impact on the wider world, their current lives and the future were cited as the main reason for the word choice, whilst ‘sad’, ‘scared’ and ‘worried’ were the most common responses by young people when asked how the word makes them feel.”
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Watch Out – The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch is back. RSPB says join hundreds of thousands of people across the UK on 26 to 28 January and help build a picture of how garden birds are faring. To take part, you just need to choose a wild space, like your garden, balcony, or local park, and count the birds you see in one hour. A great activity for schools.
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Get on the Map – 1,500 schools, nurseries and colleges are now registered with the DfE’s National Education Nature Park programme. You can join here.
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Environmental Education Vol 133 – NAEE’s latest journal has now been distributed to our core supporters, and is available on the members page of the website. You can see details of its contents here and get access to all previous editions all the way back to 1971.
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Our Youth 4 for Climate – A new OY4CCurriculum is being launched in February. This aims “to address the pressing need for comprehensive climate education, including commonly neglected social dimensions, viewed through a global and intersectional lens”. By focusing on foundational climate knowledge, it aims “to ignite a passion for environmentalism, encouraging students to incorporate it into their future careers”. There’s more detail of the team involved here.
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MECCE – The Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education project has an interactive data platform where you can now read stories about multi-sectoral Climate Communication and Education case studies, and access the studies’ photos, videos, and reports.
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Climate Action – A new £2 million Department for Education initiative will be co-led by EAUC and the University of Reading, in association with STEM Learning UK. This is an expansion of the Climate Ambassadors programme created by the University of Reading and STEM Learning UK as one outcome of the National Climate Education Action Plan. Since April 2022, the scheme has seen 236 Climate Ambassadors reach more than 80,000 learners and teachers in 534 schools, colleges, and universities. Climate Action Planning will establish nine regional hubs across England, hosted by 12 universities and organisations with expertise in sustainability. These hubs will recruit and support volunteers from industry and academia to work as Climate Ambassadors. Every school, college and university in England will have free access to expert support to become greener and more climate resilient as part of the scheme.
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Grounds Webinar – The next Nature Park webinar is on Thurs 25 Jan 1615-1645. It’s aimed at school grounds / estates / business staff and others involved in practical aspects of making changes to your “learning site”. You can sign up here.
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Climate Fiction – We occasionally feature the work of Denise Baden who is Professor of Sustainable Practice at the University of Southampton with a particular interest and expertise in climate fiction. In a recent post on her website, she reflects on her time at COP28. We looked at this in our blogs last week.
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Heather Growing Wild – In Scotland, trials composting heather are taking place to see if this could replace controlled burning on moorlands. The Countryside Alliance has the story.
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UK Eagles – Whi te-tailed eagles are to be reintroduced to a second place in England and the first on the mainland. Three pairs of the birds, also known as sea eagles, were released on the Isle of Wight in 2019, 240 years after they were last recorded in the country. Natural England has issued a licence to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation for a 10-year reintroduction at Wild Ken Hill in west Norfolk. They are the UK’s largest bird of prey, with a wingspan of up to 2.5m. Once widespread across the UK, they were wiped out about a century ago. The BBC has more details.
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Hedges – The HNBS book of the month for January is Hedges the 13th volume in the British Wildlife Collection series. This is a celebration of the ecology, biology and cultural history of the rich hedgerows of Britain and Ireland. It brings together decades of research, while also incorporating personal experiences from author Robert Wolton’s farm in Devon. Detail here.
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Reflecting Radiation – Onur Çelik, from the University of Glasgow, argues in The Conversation that solar reflectors would help provide clean energy when demand peaks near dawn and dusk.