Changing Track – Teach the Future has announced the launch of its Tracked Changes Curriculum Review. This reviews key stages 3 and 4 in the English National Curriculum, covering subjects ranging from History to Art and Design. Using a ‘tracked changes’ methodology the report suggests where and how the national curriculum can be amended to include sustainability and respond to the climate emergency and ecological crisis. The report was commissioned by Teach the Future and facilitated by a team of leading academics, with input from teachers, educators, and education experts. NAEE has been very pleased to support this work.
The launch webinar takes place on Friday 16th Sept 10-11am when you will hear headline findings as well as understand from current students why the report’s recommendations are so important. You can sign up at Eventbrite. If you are unable to attend, but would like to receive a recording of the webinar, please email zoe.arnold@sos-uk.org
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Sustainability in Business and Communities – This is a new vocational qualification for KS4 which will begin in 2024. It is aimed at students aged 14-16 who wish to develop applied knowledge and practical skills to gain a greater understanding of sustainability and its impact on businesses and the wider community. The qualification will focus on fundamental aspects of sustainability and target consumer areas such as fashion, accessories, technology devices and food and drink. Organisers say that it will also allow for the development of skills such as research and communication and creative thinking. The qualification will be put forward for KS4 performance tables in counting towards Progress 8. More details from OCR.
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Consensual Competencies – GreenComp is a reference framework for sustainability competences. It sets out to provide a common ground to learners and guidance to educators, advancing what it hopes is a consensual definition of what sustainability as a competence entails. It responds to the growing need for people to improve and develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to live, work and act in a sustainable manner, and is designed to support education and training programmes for lifelong learning. More detail here.
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Culturally Responsive Learning – The Community Works Institute says that the most powerful resource in a classroom or program(me) is tapping into students’ diverse imaginations, observations, hopes, and dreams. It says that including hip hop music within your curriculum is a powerful and culturally responsive method for achieving student engagement, empowerment, and achievement. If this is for you, an interactive workshop will explore the history of hip hop, its elements, and critical narratives as a means to connect directly to students’ “identity development, social consciousness, self-reflection, and collective knowledge production”. It will explore practical applications of using hip hop in curriculum and program(me)s. You can learn more here. The workshop is on October 7 12:30–3:30 EST (by Zoom).
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Forest Education Toolbox – Forest Ontario says that forests are for any subject. It says that whether you are teaching history, math(s), music, science, or physical education, forests can help you meet curriculum objectives and engage students in impactful, place-based learning for all ages. The toolbox is intended to assist educators in bringing forest concepts and resources into their teaching practices.
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TEESNet Update – Here’s a glimpse of some of the papers you can listen to at the forthcoming TEESNet [Teacher Education for Equity and Sustainability] conference on 28 September 28th 09:30 – 16:00 at Liverpool Hope University:
- Teacher Educators’ Perspectives on Gender Responsive Pedagogy in Higher Education (a study of a Palestinian university)
- Understandings of social justice in secondary science education among ITE students and university tutors.
- Critiques of Western Modernity in Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development
- Making Connections through Learning for Sustainability (LfS): Supporting critically reflexive engagement with the complexity and challenges of embedding LfS in professional practice.
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Nature Recovery – The term rewilding is bogging us down, says Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, so let’s call it ‘nature recovery’. He argues that a less-divisive term such as this would help farmers and activists understand that they share common ground. The Times quotes him: “There isn’t a plausible way of [avoiding global warming] without repairing the natural environment. In fact, you can paint a very compelling picture as to why restoration of the environment is the most important thing for the future of food security. I mean, after all, which economic sector is more vulnerable to environmental changes than food production? None. Net zero and food security are not different things — they are the same thing. The reality is, in England, a country with more than 55 million people but 130,000 square kilometres of land between us, we’re going to have to make intelligent choices about how we do all of these different things in that limited space to the benefit of all of those people. If we’re intelligent about this, there’s ways where we don’t have to sacrifice food production or food security for environmental goals.”
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Plan A – M&S has announced a three-year collaboration with agritech start up AgriSound that’s designed to help farmers better manage pollinators and increase crop yields as over 70% of the world’s food crops grown for human consumption rely on pollinators for sustained production, yield and quality. The collaboration is part of M&S’ five-year Farming with Nature programme to help farmers address environmental challenges and protect biodiversity.
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Organic Opportunity Cost – George Monbiot argues in The Guardian, that the most damaging farm products are organic beef and lamb. His case is that when land is used for agriculture, industry, or housing, it loses some of its ecosystem functions and its ability to store carbon. Moreover, he says, livestock on organic farms take longer to raise and need more land: “Agricultural sprawl inflicts a very high ecological opportunity cost.”
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Population Data – World population growth has fallen to 1%, its slowest rate since 1950. The main cause is a decline in human fertility. The latest projections suggests a peak population around 10.4 billion in the 2080s. That means we have 58 years to work out how to provide 11 billion people with a good standard of sustainable living. There’s an article in The Week with further detail.
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NàdarAlba – NatureScot has launched its latest Gaelic Plan, setting out the organisation’s commitments for the next five years. The plan builds on NatureScot’s success in developing, promoting and using Gaelic. Its new aims include increased visibility for Gaelic in community engagement on climate change and biodiversity loss; a pledge to grow and preserve understanding of the natural environment through the Gaelic language; and promotion of the benefits of Gaelic to the nature-based jobs needed in the transition to net-zero. Francesca Osowska, NatureScot CEO, said: “The Gaelic language is an integral part of our culture, and we are committed to enhancing the status of Gaelic and creating opportunities for its use. Gaelic vividly shows the enduring bond between people, places and nature.” Deagh naidheachd!
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Outdoor Learning Works – The authors in a new book: High Quality Outdoor Learning: Evidence-based Education Outside the Classroom for Children, Teachers and Society say that it shows how learning in the world outside the classroom helps to nurture and unfold learners’ potentials as much as possible, and demonstrates the multiple benefits of outdoor learning for cognitive understanding, social skills, personal and emotional development, psychological well-being, and physical activity and health. It is open access and can be accessed here.
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Shipping Strategy – A recent edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Spark focused on the challenge of decarbonising shipping. The programme suggested a future which is radically different to today, in a world where population, oil extraction and economic growth have all peaked, and trade is transformed.
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Swift Bricks – Wildlife-friendly measures on new housing developments can boost the number of key species, according to an RSPB survey. The Kingsbrook development near Aylesbury included integrating swift nest bricks into the walls of houses, planting fruit trees in gardens, and constructing sustainable drainage system ponds and wetlands. The RSPB surveyed bird and invertebrate species before construction began in 2015, and then again in 2021, after the first village of 600 houses was built. They found that bumblebee numbers doubled, butterfly numbers remained stable, and that there was no loss in the number of bird species. The number of house sparrows and starlings, both of which are on the red list of conservation concern, increased by almost 4,000% and 100% respectively. However, chaffinch and linnet numbers both declined.