Meaningful Connections – London’s Natural History Museum, the Royal Horticultural Society and the Royal Society, are developing the DfE’s National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Awards scheme. This aims to make sure every young person in England has opportunities to develop a meaningful connection to nature, understand the concepts of climate change and biodiversity loss, and feel able to do something about these. The consortium sets out its latest ideas here.
.
DfE Snapshot – The latest issue of the DfE’s Climate Education Snapshot is now available. It includes:
- an overview of DfE at COP 27
- the National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Award scheme
- supporting schools and colleges to be energy efficient
- a virtual session with Jon Dewsbury, Chief Sustainability Officer
- a request to share your good practice.
.
Feedback to DfE – The Department has set up further stakeholder and youth engagement sessions inviting feedback on its Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy and other recent developments. These are on Wednesday 18th January, 10am – 11am and on Tuesday 24th January, 2pm – 3pm. If you would like to attend either of these sessions, email: DFE.SUSTAINABILITY@education.gov.uk with the date of the session you’d like to attend in the subject line.
.
Green Governance – The National Governance Association’s Green Governance campaign aims to ensure all schools and trusts have a strategy for their contribution to environmental sustainability, and to equip governing boards to play their role in overseeing this work. In the annual governance survey 2022 only 41% of schools and trusts had acted on environmental sustainability. The NGA is asking every governing board to make the Greener Governance pledge to:
- reduce carbon emissions at your school or trust;
- put your school’s or trust’s contribution to environmental sustainability on the agenda; and
- ensure a climate action plan is developed to make this happen.
NAEE is pleased to work with the NGA on this important work. For more information click here.
.
COP 27 – The Mock COP students have released their latest blog sharing their experience of and thoughts on COP27, and the outcomes, whether they were there in-person or following remotely. In addition, UNU-IAS and UNESCO organised an official side event at COP27 that explored how engaging citizens in science and empowering young people could contribute to climate action. Details here.
.
Teach In – The annual SOS-UK’s SDG Teach In, which calls on educators to include the sustainable development goals in their teaching, learning and assessment, begins next March. Educators are encouraged to make a pledge to incorporate the SDGs in their work, and students are encouraged to encourage them.
.
Santa and the Owl – Neil Kitchin’s latest blog at carbonchoices.uk is a short story about how a chance meeting with an owl persuaded Father Christmas to turn green.
.
Learners Council – The FED is looking for up to 20 young people aged 16-25, who are either current learners or have recently left education within England, to join the Foundation for Education Development (FED) Learners Council in 2022-2023. It is also looking for up to two current learners aged 25 or over who are in full-time or part-time education to join the Council. Details here. The FED, meanwhile, continues to develop its Climate Education & Sustainability Toolkit for Schools and Colleges, and member of its steering group met recently at St George’s House, Windsor Castle. Those meeting included Students Organising for Sustainability, Engineering UK, Cognition Education UK Ltd, Leeds Trinity University, the National Governance Association, the Woodland Trust, and the University of Gloucestershire.
.
Green Steel – A new feature in The Conversation by Clare Richardson-Barlow, Andrew Pimm, and Pepa Ambrosio-Albala, from the University of Leeds, focuses on the production of steel without using coke or other carbon-based material. So called green steel is the subject of a new resource that NAEE will publish in January. It’s aimed at teachers and will explore these newer methods of production and how close we are to seeing them adopted.
.
Restoring and Protecting Nature – The Natural Environment Awards scheme, sponsored by KPMG, has been launched to celebrate the successes of organisations in the West Midlands on restoring and protecting nature. The awards are open for businesses, educational institutions, public sector bodies and community groups to apply for. The Education Award category aims to recognise schools that have showcased their commitment and enthusiasm for creating and improving greenspace, such as creating a Forest School or planting trees to benefit the local community. Applications are open now until the 16th January 2023. You can download the application guidance document and the application form here.
.
Audit Tools – SCHOOL iP recently ran a webinar discussing how to manage environmental sustainability in schools. You can watch it here.
.
Pedagogy Innovate – Do you want your organization to facilitate an ESD pedagogical activity during one of UNESCO’s ESD-Net 2030 learning webinars? All you need to do is express your interest to esd-net@unesco.org by 30 December by including a brief overview (1-2 pages) of the thematic focus, learning objectives and the ESD activity content, together with an indication of how your pedagogy/practice addresses the following:
- What is the ESD topic/theme?
- What ESD approach is utilized?
- What are the target ESD skills/competencies?
- Why/How is your practice engaging and innovative?
.
Water Wants and Needs – WaterAid is an international not-for-profit organisation, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential for the full enjoyment of life and all other rights. Lesson plans for KS3/4 explain the differences between wants and needs, introduce human rights, their importance, and how access to these human rights relates to water, hygiene and sanitation. These free lesson resources from WaterAid tie in with the UN’s Human Rights Day which was on 10th December.
.
Trend Analysis and Modalities – An overview and analysis of activities from RCEs around the globe provides trend analysis for topics and modalities of ESD projects conducted during the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD which ran from 2015 to 2019. This empirical analysis serves as a record of Global RCE Network activity, where it is now, and where it may wish to go in the future. Essential reading.
……………………………………………………………
An End to 2022 – Best wishes from all at NAEE for Christmas and the New Year holiday. We’re taking a break ourselves but will be back on January 9th