DfE Snapshot – The November Climate in Education Newsletter from the DfE is now available. In it you’ll find details of:
- An international Green Skills Conference
- The Global Green Skills Report 2023
- National Education Nature Park at St John
- The National Education Nature Park at St John Fisher Primary
- Sustainable Futures
- The OVO Foundation Nature Prize
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COP 28 –There are fewer than 30 days until COP 28 begins. On 8th December there is a dedicated education day focused on youth, children, education and skills which will bring together ministers of environment and education, as well as international organisations to discuss how education can enhance the implementation of the climate agenda.
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Nature Park News – London’s Natural History Museum says that nearly 1000 teachers have registered for the Nature Park since the launch on the 4th of October. They come from over 800 individual educational settings. To register your school and/or sign up for the newsletter go to: Home | Education Nature Park
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Free resources – The Nature Park has now released resources to allow teachers “to deliver lessons on climate and nature with confidence using free quality-assured, curriculum-linked resources”. From resources associated with units of learning to activities to develop your setting’s own Nature Park, it says: “Check out our growing library to assist your teaching and planning”. For webpages with resources arranged by category with filter function, see: Resources | Education Nature Park
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Beyond Technological Interventions – There’s a new policy brief from the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath on the climate crisis in UK national curricula. This explores how responding to climate change is presented in secondary school curricula across the four UK nations, and points to significant limitations, both in terms of inclusion of relevant content across subjects and the presentation of available strategies to tackle climate change. It calls upon educational policymakers and curriculum developers to revise UK national curricula to incorporate content about responding to climate change into a wider range of subjects. It ssays that content should also be expanded to present a wider range of possible solutions beyond technological (and supply-side) interventions, and also reflect the full spectrum of actions and roles available to the public.
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Soothing Climate Anxiety – In an article for The Conversation, Leora Hadas, from the University of Nottingham, writes about the BBC’s Planet Earth III and says that its “cookie cutter nature programming could fail to educate and inform audiences”. It mentions an academic report commissioned by the BBC which said that tells us that watching nature documentaries can soothe climate anxiety. Hadas says that this may seem paradoxical when the narration tells us about the loss of precious species and habitats. But consider what the format spends most of its time showing us: untouched landscapes unfolding endlessly from the air, beautiful animals in super high definition, and no humans in sight.
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ANGEL News – This month sees the publication of two new collections of writing for anyone with an interest in research on Global Education and Learning. Both are edited by DERC Director Doug Bourn and both feature writing by Development Education Research Centre alumni and members of the partnership project the Academic Network on Global Education and Learning. Both books are available in an open access format. There is a hybrid launch event for both books on the30th of November from 17:00 -18:30. Details here.
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Climate Change & the SDGs – Let’s Act! is an online learning platform aims to educate KS3 & 4 students on climate change and the SDGs. The platform can be used as online interactive lessons, as teaching materials or print outs. It comes complete with a guide for teachers.
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Climate Action – The Governance Toolkit: A Whole College Approach to Climate Action was developed by the Education and Training Foundation, in partnership with EAUC and the Association of Colleges. This aims to help governors to address climate change as a strategic business issue and shows how they can help their boards take timely, positive and decisive action to drive a sustainability strategy. A launch webinar will be held from 1000 – 1100 on the 22nd of November, providing an overview alongside a case study from Solihull College. It is relevant for governors, senior leadership teams, and staff working with governors.
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Bath Webinars – We are invited to join the I-SEE webinar on Tuesday the 14th of November. The presenter is Emeritus Professor Stuart Irvine, from Swansea University. He says that although solar photovoltaic (PV). energy has become mainstream, what are the prospects for future developments. He will reflect on progress made in the past 10 years on power generation from solar PV but will note that the global use of fossil fuels has actually increased by over 8%. He’ll explore the use of emerging materials that offer opportunities for future integrated PV. You can register here.
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Agrobiodiversity Conservation – The latest policy briefing from IIED’s forest team highlights five strategies and 18 tactics for agrobiodiversity conservation used by forest and farm producer organisations (FFPOs), Indigenous Peoples and local community groups. The briefing makes recommendations that governments and official development partners should follow to offer them greater recognition, finance and policy support. You can read the briefing here.
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Plants & Fungi Update – Citizen Zoo’s Rewilding Monthly Bite reports that conservationists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew have published the 2023 report on the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi. This is different from the State of Nature report last month, which focuses on species and nature extinction risks. The State of World’s Plants and Fungi is mainly focused on species distributions and the need for data collection and species identification and classification. The report was collated by over 200 scientists from 30 countries, and outlines trends gathered from a wide range of data points, including the latest advancements in eDNA to study fungal diversity around the world. The report outlines how an estimated 2 million fungi are yet to be discovered, whilst a backlog of 100,000 discovered species are yet to be formally classified. You can learn morehere, read the report here, and read key takeaways here.
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Mendip News – A new national nature reserve spanning the Cheddar Gorge and the Mendip Hills has been created in Somerset to boost nature and protect the landscape. The declaration of the Mendip National Nature Reserve by Natural England will conserve and help to restore 1,413 hectares of limestone slopes, traditional wildflower grasslands, ancient woodland, spectacular gorges and rocky outcrops. This will provide a safe haven for a number of species, including small pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies, skylarks and water voles.
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Finally – A last reminder for members that our AGM is on Saturday November 18th by Zoom. In this, Rob Hopkins, the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books includingFrom What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want’, will explore why, as activists campaigning for a future in which people and the natural world can thriv.e, we need to become much better at speaking to people’s imaginations, at the cultivation of longing. All members welcome. Please email info@naee.org.uk to book a place.