Jasmin Kirkbride, a Lecturer in Publishing at the University of East Anglia and Paul Chambers, a PhD Candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol, wrote recently in The Conversation about the haiku poetry form and climate change. It begins: “A successful haiku could be described as a half-finished poem. Originating in Japan in the 17th century, the haiku uses a combination of sensory language, seasonal references, a sense of contrast and a focus on the present tense to share an experience between writer and reader.  It relies on the reader to “finish” the poem by employ ..read more

Climate Education Needed – Cambridge University Press & Assessment is calling for the next UK government to appoint an independent review to gather evidence and advise on the climate knowledge and skills young people need and how to embed those in the education system.  According to a very recent YouGov poll: More than 65 % of the British public would support a change to the school curriculum to include more content on climate change 58 % of UK adults think a focus on climate change would prepare students for jobs in a ‘green economy’ Over 70 % think a greate ..read more

Reacting to the new poll findings released by Cambridge University Press & Assessment on April 18th, Jamie Agombar, Executive Director of Students Organising for Sustainability said through LinkedIn: “A new poll found that more than 70% of the public think a greater focus on climate change at school would help students better understand how to tackle it “As someone who does these at A-Level, I don’t recall climate change even being mentioned once,” one student said “The climate and ecological emergency is a multi-dimensional challenge, and as such it needs to be woven into every part of th ..read more

SOS UK – Here’s an update about what Students Organising for Sustainability is planning in its lineup of sustainability and wellbeing programmes for the 2024-25 academic year. . O4YC Curriculum – There are two free online sessions to explore what the OY4C Curriculum looks like.  They are for anyone including students, teachers, climate scientists/experts, NGOs, parents, Heads of schools, governmental officials…etc.  Details: – Saturday, April 20th at 1100 – 1140 BST  and  – Saturday, April 20th at 1800 – 1840 BST.  Furt ..read more

Today’s post is by Ben Ballin, who’s a member of the West Midlands Sustainable Schools Network [@wmsussch], and an Educationalist at Big Brum. He reports on the work of the Standing Conference on the Arts, Education and the Environment. “We are literally in the mouth of the Giant” – conference participant “Children are too often sold a false promise that small things (walking to school, switching lights off) will have a bigger impact than they do. We need a wider conversation …” – Solihull teacher  In July 2023, with NAEE support, Big Brum TIE hosted an event in Birmingham to initiate a ..read more

Today’s post is by David Dixon, NAEE Trustee and author of Leadership for Sustainability: saving the planet one school at a time (Crown House Publishing, 2022). David is Tynedale’s Bicycle Mayor. As usual with our blogs, the views expressed are not necessarily shared by the Association. Recently school meals hit the headlines when a headteacher in a letter to parents complained about the poor standard of food being served up in his school by an outside catering company. This went viral and the whole issue of dubious quality meals in schools became a national talking point. This has happened ev ..read more

The most recent Spectator Schools magazine had an article, Better Nature, which focused on “how to make the new natural history GCSE more worthwhile”. This is a plea for natural history to be focused on plants and animals rather than on fashionable causes such as the need to ‘save the world from catastrophe’ as suggested by Baroness Flotilla Benjamin and others. Those who sit on OCR’s advisory group for the GCSE are familiar with these tensions. The author, Jim Lawley, writes: However well-meant such declarations may be, natural history is in fact about identifying and studying plants and ani ..read more

Secrets of the Saltmarsh  By Claire Saxby; illustrated by Alicia Rogerson  CSIRO Publishing, 2023  isbn 9781486317141 (hbk)   It’s not every day that you think of, or use the words ‘salt marsh’. Wetlands, yes, vaulable and quickly disappearing habitats,  a habitat type that we are losing each year to drainage to make way for farmland. However the specific label of ‘saltmarsh’ is not in your roadside cafe.   To clarify, Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides.  Salt marshes provide many ver ..read more

Anna Ridgewell, from the University of Sussex, won the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2023 Best ePoster Prize and has now contributed a post to its Blog: Growing up green: What value is placed on accessing outdoor environments across different childcare and educational settings? This is how it begins: “It is well known that spending time in nature is beneficial for children (Chawla, 2015). However, in Britain, children now spend less time outside than previous generations (Moss, 2012), which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (Natural England, 2021). Fur ..read more

Today’s post is by David Dixon, NAEE Trustee and author of Leadership for Sustainability: saving the planet one school at a time (Crown House Publishing, 2022). David is Tynedale’s Bicycle Mayor. As usual with our blogs, the views expressed are not necessarily shared by the Association. If time travellers from the 19th Century were to arrive in 2024, they would marvel at the technological revolutions of our age. These would include our extensive motorways, slick electric cars, railways without steam power, huge container ships, renewable energy production, labour saving household applianc ..read more