Leicester City Council is organising a conference on March 16th with its focus on Creating Young Leaders in Sustainable Development.
The aims of the conference are to help practitioners support learners to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development (Global) Goal 4.7. It will be a combination of workshops and activities “to inspire and engage” with opportunities to network, link research to practice, and share your own knowledge and expertise. The event is aimed at EYFS and primary school practitioners, secondary school and post-16 teachers in higher education and universities who have an interest in environmental education or sustainable development.
The keynote speaker is Justin Dillon, Professor of science and environmental education at the University of Exeter, and an internationally-respected academic whose work covers science education and teacher education as well as environmental education. The 16 Workshops (you can choose 4) include:
- Bobbie Harvey, FACE & Lisa Didier, Food for Life – Food, farming and the future
- Sarah Eames, Primary Science Teaching Trust – STEM and sustainability
- Sarah Staunton- Lamb, Earthwatch – Citizen Science and the Global Goals
- Martha Rose, Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust – Using the outdoors in literacy and numeracy lessons
- Zoe Fleming, University of Leicester – Measuring air quality around your school
- Andy Chambers, South Derbyshire Environmental Education – Fab Food: ideas for reducing your school’s food waste
To book your place go to goo.gl/77mNQ8 and email Lee.Jowett@leicester.gov.uk for further details.
National Children’s Day this year is Sunday 13th May.
Wendy Ellyatt, Chief Executive of the Save Childhood Movement said:
“Children in the modern world are experiencing pressures that were unknown to previous generations. National Children’s Day UK provides a wonderful opportunity for people to highlight things that are going on in the lives of children and families and issues that they care about. We hope everyone will use the day as a platform to celebrate everything that is magical about childhood, but to also shine a light on any problems and what we can do to alleviate them.”
NAEE says what a good opportunity for some really enjoyable outdoor environmental education.
LEEF says that these are important points arising from the 25 year environment plan:
- 2019 to be a ‘Year of Action’ on the environment
- a ‘Nature Friendly Schools’ programme to help improve school grounds for nature and wellbeing, with a focus on disadvantaged areas
- a pledge of more support for schools and Pupil Referral Units to take pupils on trips to natural spaces on a regular basis
- supporting the 2019 #iwill environment-themed year, with design input from young people
- exploring the potential for piloting a natural environment programme with youth groups that encourages use of natural environments through social action
- public engagement activities in 2019 linking to initiatives on waste reduction, cleaner air or other aspects of pro-environmental behaviour.
The GA now has a Hurricane Irma website. This is a super-rich resource base of information and activities that focus, not just on Irma, but on hurricanes more generally. There are also links to extreme weather and climate change case studies.
The GA is also holding a Getting ready for your independent investigation in geography course in London on May 3rd. This will help A level students to launch their independent investigation. On the day, experienced examiners will run sessions to help students think through how to select, approach, and complete their own independent study. The GA says that this combination of lecture and workshop activities will enable students to:
- consider a wide range of topics for investigation and develop a title
- think about a wide range of data collection strategies and consider strategies for analysing geographical data
- learn how to put together a good proposal form, through reviewing practical examples.
Rooted Forest School has a range of events for children and families to take part in across the west Midlands, the English Marches and Wales. These from a Holiday Club to Woodland Birthday Parties and Bushcraft sessions. It caters for all ages from children as young as 12 months, through Primary School, Secondary School, adults, and older people in residential care homes.
The RSPB has a free poster to go with the annual Big Garden Birdwatch which is taking place from 27 to 29 January, but it’s not too late to take part. You can download it from the RSPB blog.
Circle of Life Rediscovery is offering a range of courses by Juliette Robertson this year. You’ll find details here. These caught our eye:
- Outdoor Literacy – 23rd February
- Dirty Teaching: Developing a Whole School Approach to Learning Outdoors – 23rd February
- Outdoor Maths – 21st September
All are from 0930 to 1530 and take place in Mill Woods, East Sussex.
Wildlife Watch has a new Feature Creature profile of the stoat whose behaviour it behaves as ‘skittish’ and ‘fashion conscious’ (because of all that ermine.
There’s also a link to the Stoat species profile page which will also take you to the Weasel page if you’re at all confused by these similar animals.
Assessing the costs of environmental land management in the UK is a report commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and the National Trust. Published last month, it shows how much tax-payers might need to land managers for their role in looking after our natural heritage. This is a link to the policy briefing.
Ellie Brodie, The Wildlife Trusts’ senior policy manager, says:
“Farmers can sell the food they grow through the market. But they can’t sell a whole range of services that society needs them to provide, whether it’s reducing the risk of floods downstream, creating habitat for bees or improving the health of our soils. The Wildlife Trusts believe that farmers should be paid for this as it benefits us all. A healthy, wildlife-rich natural world is valuable in its own right and is also at the core of people’s wellbeing and prosperity.”
The National House Building Council (NHBC) Foundation has published a new report (in collaboration with ZCD Architects) on the importance of taking account of children’s need to play outside and close to their homes. The report – Making Spaces for Play – calls for more child-friendly approaches to neighbourhood, town and city planning.
Dinah Bornat, of ZCD Architects, says:
“This report could potentially pave the way for a child-friendly approach to new developments, that all too often remain car dominant.”
In Moscow, in December 2017, there were only 6 minutes of sunshine. This was, it seems, 6 minutes more than in London in December 1890. One study cited by NASA based on about 10 years of satellite data estimated that about 2/3rds of the Earth’s surface is covered by clouds at any one time. For data on this and related phenomena, click here.