NAEE AGM 2015
NAEE’s 2015 AGM is on October 24th this year. It’s being held at the imposing Birmingham and Midland Institute in the centre of Birmingham. It starts at 1030, and we hope to see you there. More details much nearer the time.
Earth and Space
The NAEE web team thinks that it’s the environment on planet earth, and our dependency on it for the quality of our lives, that should be our most pressing concerns, given its parlous state. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t think about what’s going on outside the biosphere. Here’s an animation from the European Space Agency illustrating Andreas Mogensen’s…
India’s Voluntary Nature Conservancy
NAEE President, Bill Scott, met Dhaval Patel from the Voluntary Nature Conservancy, VNC, last week to talk about environmental education in India and the UK. VNC is based in Vallabh Vidhyanagar in Gujarat, and began its work as a charitable foundation in 1988. Its activities are wide-ranging, including: Nature Education Camps An Outdoor Experiential Educational Programme Observational Outing on Sunday Mornings A Reptile…
Latest NAEE journal published
NAEE has published its new journal, Environmental Education Vol 109, for its members. Its contents include a number of regular features such as the President’s Column, and reports from NAEE-sponsored field work by schools. Feature articles this time include: Investigating soils in the primary classroom – Tracy Atkinson Discover Superworm in your local forest – Rachel Giles Soil…
When a bird hunts a butterfly
Butterfly Conservation News says this, about one of our most common (and dazzling) butterflies … “The Small Tortoiseshell is a common garden species but you are most likely to find this butterfly amongst the weeds and wild areas than in the formal flowerbeds. Females lay their eggs on nettles and at night both sexes…
Well done Martineau Gardens
As we noted the other day, 1582 parks and green spaces have received a 2015 Green Flag Award from Keep Britain Tidy. These awards recognise the best parks and green spaces across the country, and a green flag is a sign to the public that the highest possible standards are adhered to. NAEE is very pleased that…
New Ofsted Framework
From this September, a new Ofsted inspection framework will apply to the following four stages of education: early years settings, schools, and the FE / skills sector. This is the framework. To download an inspection handbook for each of these four stages, just click on these links: early years maintained schools and academies non-association independent schools further education and skills And this is Ofsted’s…
Jonathon Porritt’s hopes for the next 5 years
Here is a video of a recent lecture at the University of the West of England (Bristol) by Jonathon Porritt on Sustainability and the Conservative Administration. Porritt has been a key figure in UK sustainable development for the last 40 years. He’s a former director of Friends of the Earth, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, and founder director…
Curriculum challenges for and from environmental education
The Journal of Curriculum Studies has developed a Virtual Special Issue [VSI] on curriculum challenges related to environmental education. The VSI draws on the work of the Journal on curriculum and environmental education since the early 1970s, and offers a ‘long view’ on key issues and challenges. Alan Reid’s Introduction, says that editors delved into the Journal’s back…
Learning by staying away from home
In June 2015, York Consulting published its evaluation of the Learning Away residentials project, identifying the impacts of overnight stays on young people. Learning Away set out to support schools enhancement of young people’s learning, achievement and wellbeing by using innovative residential experiences as an integral part of the curriculum. The initiative was funded by the Paul Hamlyn…