The Giant Recycled Acorn project aims to raise awareness of recycling through a creative artwork which raises money for the Acorn Children’s Hospices. This is a competition for community groups and schools, and teachers are encouraged to enter their students’ work – both primary and secondary. Participants should create an Acorn picture in any size or medium. These can be painted,…
UNESCO’s report on delivering global citizenship education, Global Citizenship Education: Topics and Learning Objectives, is aimed at anyone who wants to promote the idea of global learning. The report sets out a series of nine topics to explore GCE in the classroom. It identifies learning objectives and themes for teachers to explore with students, and for policy makers to incorporate into the curriculum…
If you click here, you can see how the UK’s electricity is being generated at this moment. Data are updated every 5 minutes, with a <5 minutes lag in getting the data on line. It’s impressive stuff from UK Energy Watch. The scope for school use of this site is huge, as there is…
A Random Act of Wildness is any thing that you can do in an average working day to bring a little nature into your life. It can take a few seconds, a few minutes, or if you lose yourself completely, a few hours. This idea from the Wildlife Trusts has been running through June, 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’.…
The British Association for Early Childhood Education is a national charity supporting early years practitioners with training, resources and professional networks, and campaigning for quality education for the youngest children. The Association believes every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfil their potential. A child’s experience in the early years has…
This year’s CLOtC Conference will take place on Thursday 26th November at Gilwell Park Conference Centre in Epping Forest, Essex. It will focus on how learning outside the classroom (LOtC) can help develop the character attributes that lead to academic achievement and success, and draw on the evidence that LOtC builds resilience, improves communication and team work skills, and helps…
UNESCO has published a new book to stimulate the discussion on the role of learning and education in the 21st century. Rethinking education – Towards a global common good? was released at the World Education Forum 2015 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, and feeds in to the policy debate and negotiations of the post-2015 development agenda. Unesco says: “We…
Where will you be today? Will you be inside (again)? Or will you be with your students in the warm breeze and experiencing that feel-good factor that comes of fresh air, exercise, and the stimulus of the natural world? If not, why not? It is empty classroom day, after all.
The Vatican has published the Pope’s long-awaited encyclical on climate change: On Care for Our Common Home. It runs to 246 paragraphs and ends with a prayer for our earth. Pope Francis argues for a new partnership between science and religion to address human-driven climate change, and chides those who remain sceptics on the issue. The encyclical is necessarily spiritual,…
The Conservation Foundation is attempting to unlock the mystery of why some trees survived Dutch elm disease which wiped out over 25 million elms in the UK. David Shreeve, Director of the Foundation, says: “We want to interest a new generation in the elm, so much a feature of the British life and landscape…
The 2015 Eco-schools roadshow is ready to roll. You can spend a day at an Eco-Schools Ambassador school exploring the Eco-Schools programme. The events are: June 24: St. Mary’s, Colchester…book now July 2: Bootham School, York….book now July 15: Cardinal Allen High School, Fylde, Lancashire….book now September 15: Bruton School for Girls, Somerset….book now September 23: Keep Britain Tidy, Shoreditch, London….book now September 29: The…