Sustainability and climate education ‘vital for green jobs’

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As the new UK government begins its stated mission to ‘rebuild Britain’, a group of education and climate experts, including TIDE Commmunity's Sean McQuaid, is calling for sustainability and climate education to be at the heart of its priorities. 

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In its election manifesto, the Labour party committed to making Britain a clean energy superpower and to a new, modern educational curriculum.  

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Launched at the Royal Meteorological Society Annual Weather and Climate Conference today (Monday 8 July) in Reading, the National Climate Education Action Plan Curriculum Mapping report shows how these two missions could be linked. The report highlights the many opportunities to bring quality climate and sustainability education into the curriculum.  ​​

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Rich curriculum 

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The report highlights different options to improve climate education from the first week of the new government, and the pros and cons of each of these approaches.​ There are opportunities for an expansion of current climate education by adjusting teaching within the current curriculum, or by making small but meaningful changes to current curriculum specifications.

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It includes detailed mapping showing where and how climate can fit into the curriculum. These changes could be implemented quickly while a more comprehensive review takes place. The report also highlights how greater inclusion of climate education fits with the desire of the new government to make the curriculum rich, broad and inclusive.  

In the foreword to the report, Lisa Hoerning, a recent school leaver, makes clear the desire amongst young people for the forthcoming curriculum review to incorporate climate and sustainability education as a theme that crosses subjects and educational levels.​

 

The report was produced by a group of authors from fourteen educational organisations led by Professor Sylvia Knight, of the Royal Meteorological Society, and Science Outreach Practitioner Sean McQuaid of TIDE Community and is endorsed by a broad coalition of 60 organisations from schools, colleges, universities, climate charities and educational publishers. 

 

The full National Climate Education Action Plan Curriculum Mapping report is published online today and can be found below.

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A Curriculum for Climate Literacy Report​

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​The final Curriculum for Climate Literacy Report link is below. The aim of the workshop was to begin to agree and define a Curriculum for Climate Literacy which, as part of a much wider curriculum, would equip students with the Climate Literacy needed for their lives as local and global citizens, and with the skills for future careers shaped by a changing climate.

 

TIDE features in the introduction, alongside UNESCO, CAPE and SOS-UK, as an organisation that has contributed to the workshop and climate mapping. 

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