Environmental Education Feature

Dr Susan Pike, Lecturer in Geography Education, writes about her work at St Partick’s College, Drumcondra. New teachers’ experiences of and attitudes to Environmental Education (EE) depend on many factors.  At St Patrick’s College in Dublin, we find student teachers come to us with a wide variety of experiences of EE.  Some students have attended schools…

Joel Chudleigh, founder and Chief Executive of Deep Footprints, explores the problems children now have because of their lack of access to nature, and what might be done about it. Children spend less time outdoors than ever before and, as the National Trust found out in a 2012 study, they have 90% reduced access to…

Katrina Podlewska, from the Forestry Commission, and Dani Andres, from Spirit Public Relations, explore children’s forest adventures with the Gruffalo. Ask primary children about the Gruffalo and the chances are most will be able to describe the character created by Julia Donaldson in the books The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. So…

Building skills and confidence in using school grounds Sam Goddard, Forest School Leader, and Chair of Herefordshire Forest School Group, explains why outdoor play and learning is crucial to children’s healthy development, both physically, mentally and emotionally. In his acclaimed book ‘Last Child In The Woods’, Richard Louv says that many of our children are suffering from ‘nature deficit disorder’.…

Alistair Goulding explores the background to, and benefits of, Sustrans’ work in schools over the past 20 years.  This started with the Safe Routes to Schools scheme and Sustrans works with over 10% of UK schools.  This is an extract from Alistair’s article which first appeared in NAEE’s journal Environmental Education [ Vol 107 ],…