The DfE’s new models – The Economst has a feature on the DfE’s innovative way of changing the curriculum. Rather than the bother of having to go to parliament to enact primary leglislation, it is using the device of a “model curriculum”. One of these already exists (music) and another is in the offing (history). A third, primary science, is promised. As the Economist notes, “In theory model curriculums are … ignorable, but in practice they demand attention. Inspectors in England check to see whether teachers are using high-quality curriculums; where a detailed government model exists, schools may reasonably conclude that sticking to that is less risky than creating courses of their own. Model curriculums may influence the content that educational publishers put out.” The idea of the primary science model curriculum stemmed from the DfE’s inputs to COP26 and it is promised that there will be an emphasis on nature. Details are scarce.
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Track Changes – NAEE is working with Teach the Future and Students Organising for Sustainability on the ‘trackchange project’. Its purpose is to review and re-draft sections of the national curriculum framework, statutory programmes of study and attainment targets for key stages 3 and 4, to illustrate what these would need to look like in order to take climate change and the ecological crisis seriously and help young people learn about them and how to take action to address them. The national curriculum revisions (2014 & 2017) provide the baselines for this. A consortium co-ordinated by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Cambridge has won the tender for this work. A report is expected in July.
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Schools are Vital – The latest edition of the ASE journal School Science Review has an open access article by Maria Rossini, Head of Education at the British Science Association. This is its concluding comment:
“Schools have a vital role to play in helping young people understand and engage with the pressing issues of our time. More effective and engaging climate education can help prepare them to play their part in combat- ting climate change. Practical science activities can help young people relate to and contextualise the issues that will inevitably play a formative and significant role in their futures – inspiring, educating and preparing the new leaders, scientists and engineers of tomorrow. Despite the admirable and inspiring efforts of youth climate leaders and the importance of educating and engaging today’s students with environmental issues, it also must not be forgotten that young people do not bear the burden of climate change alone. It is the responsibility of everyone and can only truly be tackled by all of us, with education and awareness being merely the first step.”
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40 Years On – The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning project has come to an end. Managed by the British Council, it was a 3-year programme of professional development for UK teachers, supporting international partnerships between schools and offering core skills training to teachers in a range of countries in the Global South. An impact report is being compiled by IPSOS Mori. DERC are planning to organise an event with the British Council in late summer to share the findings about the value of the programme. A number of reports are already available as part of the Connecting Classrooms Practitioner Research Fund series. For example: How can we use visual literacy to impact pupils’ understandings of global learning issues? and Exploring a Multi-Country Partnership Through a ‘Zero Waste’ project. With Connecting Classrooms coming to an end, for the first time in over 40 years, there is no UK government funding for development education and global learning. Environmental Education has been in this position for a long time.
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Climate Ed Blog – Education International has a climate blog series and is looking for contributions. These can include efforts relating to any of these themes:
- Centering Indigenous peoples and knowledge systems in climate justice
- Greening schools
- Bringing climate change onto the union agenda and into social and policy dialogue
To contribute, contact Lainie.Keper@ei-ie.org
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More APPGs – We mentioned All Party Parliamentary Groups a while back. Here are other sustainability-focused ones to note: ethics and sustainabilty in fashion, environmental social and governance, nature, and youth action against climate change.
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Weather & Climate – Met Link provides a weather and climate teachers’ guide and online teaching resources that aim to help UK teachers to provide relevant, engaging and thorough weather and climate lessons to 11–14+ year-old students. It is accompanied by online background information and professional development resources for teachers.
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Chemists and the Climate Crisis – The Royal Society of Chemistry’s education team has a focus on batteries with an invitation to get involved. This global experiment can be integrated with pre-existing teaching resources, and sustainability articles written by teachers, and primary sustainability science webs.
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Circular Economy – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has created a set of teaching resources to engage primary and secondary age children on the circular economy — inspiring them to redesign our ‘take, make, waste’ system to make things better for people and the planet. You’ll find details of these c/o the TES.
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Go Wild at school – The Wildlife Trusts say that if you want to take part in 30 Days Wild, sign up to receive a free postal or digital pack. You’ll receive a wallchart to plan and log all your wild activities throughout June, and a pack of wildflower seeds to attract pollinators to your garden or school grounds.
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Outrood Activities – To see what happened on May’s Outdoor Classroom Day search #outdoorclassroomday on Twitter to see schools around the world taking part. You can sign up now for the next Outdoor Classroom Day on 3rd November.
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Gene Edits – The Inkcap Journal reports on the government’s new Genetic Technology Bill which would allow the genetic editing of plants in an effort to grow more resistant, nutritious and productive crops. The new legislation will only apply to plants, not animals, and removes barriers to research into new gene editing technology now that the UK is not bound by EU regulations. The bill has been widely covered in national news: the BBC, the Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail. As Inkcap notes, a blog by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust outlines the difference between genetic editing and traditional breeding, and why they believe the two are quite distinct. This must be a good story for A level biology classes to explore, as are other issues covered by the journal.
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Bread of Heaven – Rural campaign group Countryside Alliance Wales has launched a petition calling on the Welsh government and Natural Resources Wales to stop planting trees on farmland. It argues that they should stop purchasing productive farmland to plant trees as this policy threatens fragile rural communities, heritage, culture and the Welsh language.
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CO – NASA reports a 15% fall in global carbon monoxide levels since 2000, although the rate of decline has slowed. The decrease is attributed to more use of clean-burn technologies. Details here c/o ENN