The Policy Institute at King’s College London has published a report on what the UK public knows about environmental issues. Its title is: Britons hugely underestimate how hot planet has become and how much plastic waste is in the environment which neatly captures the problem. The study was accompanied by the publication of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re…
Year 3 pupils from Long Knowle Primary School in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton had an absolutely wonderful experience visiting the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We are extremely grateful to have received the Hugh Kenrick grant which covered our entry fee to the gardens for staff and pupils, a teaching session for the class, as well as transportation costs. This…
The Teach the Future parliamentary reception is taking place this Wednesday on February 26th. It’s sponsored (and will be introduced) by Nadia Whittome (the youngest MP, aged 24). The purpose of the event is to make the case for education to be at the centre of the Government’s climate change plans. There will be about 50 young people…
Ahead of next week’s parliamentary reception to promote attempts by Teach the Future to increase the effectiveness of climate change education, the Department for Education is resisting. A parliamentary question [ #4444 ] was asked by Darren Jones (Labour: Bristol North West) “To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of…
NAEE has written to the Prime Minister to support the case being made by students for changes to school policy and practice. This begins: “Dear Prime Minister, We are writing in support of the letter recently sent to you by Zamzam Ibrahim, President of the NUS and SOS_UK, in which she called for your personal…
In today’s blog, Richard Dawson and Ben Ballin explore the work they are doing on climate change education within primary schools in the Change the Story project. Over the next three years, a group of six European education organisations will be exploring effective climate change education within upper primary schools as part of a project called Change the Story. Through…
The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP Prime Minister 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA 14th February 2020 Dear Prime Minister We are writing in support of the letter recently sent to you by Zamzam Ibrahim, President of the NUS and SOS_UK, in which she called for your personal help in ensuring that the education…
Across Sweden, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands three collective residencies brought together an intergenerational group of people who, as Arjen Wals reports: “played, ate, (re)imagined, learned and created together” in order to design “alternative futures around a selected glocal (sic) issue”, and explore “what needs to be disrupted” to realise these imagined realities. Wals…
The latest Beehive newsletter from the Manchester Environmental Education Network MEEN is here. It includes stories of pupils becoming community educators, details of awards won, and information about opportunities and events to help schools in Greater Manchester become more eco-friendly. There’s also detail about the next MEEN Green Teach Meet where you are invited to share your practice and learn a…
Is there one book that you think every environmental educator should read? Is it Silent Spring, perhaps? Or Walden? The Natural History of Selbourne, maybe, or A Sand County Almanac? Then there’s Last Child in the Woods, Small is Beautiful or The Web of Life. The Prelude, perchance, The Deserted Village, or The Mores? And Emile? And what about Bedford 2046, Marx’s…
We were pleased to see that spending time in nature was in the list that the Duke of Edinburgh Award put forward as its definitive list of character hacks for teenagers today – 25 experiences every young person should have the chance to try. This is based on ideas “vital for building character” put forward…
Geographical regularly publishes reviews of significant books. Here are links to some of its recent output: Jared Diamond’s UPHEAVAL: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change Edward O Wilson’s GENESIS: On the Deep Origin of Societies James Lovelock’s Novacene: the coming age of hyperintelligence Lewis Dartnell’s Origins: how the Earth made us Andrew Blum’s Weather Machine: how we see into the…