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Schools and sustainable development … in a changing climate
| Held in November, 2006, this Tide~ conference brought together teachers and educators in response to new developments in the national education field, especially the DfES framework for sustainable schools.
The conference included:
This conference contributed to the West Midlands Coalition for global learning, supported by DfID. |
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Opening the day, Scott Sinclair, Director of the Tide~ Centre, outlined some of the challenges involved. How do we, as teachers, respond to the complexity and uncertainty of the issues, in a way which enables young learners to engage with them effectively and with meaning? How can we find space and time to explore these issues for ourselves, including their educational implications? A presentation from Roger Crouch, Director for Children and Learners at the Government Office of the West Midlands, made strong connections between Sustainable Schools and the Every Child Matters agenda. He suggested that the five main headings of Every Child Matters make little sense, if we think them through, unless we integrate them with sustainability questions. For example Staying safe raises questions about transportation, food production and clean air. Both agendas will be strengthened if we look at them together.
www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/ Tide~ has planned further opportunities as part of its response to the framework |
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On behalf of Sustainability West Midlands, John Rhymer formally launched new e-learning materials, Thinking through climate change, which support learners’ understanding of the complex realities of climate change. Thinking through climate change has been created by a group of West Midland teachers, working with Tide~ on behalf of WMnet.
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Following the launch of Thinking through climate change, the conference heard three inputs about climate change and education.
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Tony Wray, Managing Director, Severn Trent Water Can we be as radical as our own past? Tony reminded us that the speedy growth of major cities like Birmingham in the nineteenth century was met with extraordinary ingenuity and enterprise, not least in meeting the huge needs for water and sanitation they created. In the twenty-first century, Severn Trent is committed to building a sustainable water industry in a changing climate. Tony outlined some of the challenges faced by the company in this context. Recognising that we all face similar challenges, and the critical role of education in this process, Severn Trent have supported this conference and the work linked to it. For a copy of Tony’s Powerpoint click here |
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Alan Simpson, MP, Nottingham South
Alan Simpson powerfully and eloquently communicated a sense of urgency about climate change, asserting that we have five to ten years to bring it under control. He reminded us that such a short time frame for massive change is not impossible – for example, vast change was achieved by many cities seeking to meet their citizens’ needs in the early industrial revolution.
He shared some innovative and creative thinking about solutions which are starting to be put into place in Europe, supported by the political will and human creativity demanded by such a pressing but complex issue: energy generated by Dutch under-road water pipes, a school which has developed cost-effective rainwater harvesting, political initiatives for low-carbon cities in London and Nottingham; and Germany’s economic incentives for producing your own green energy.
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Young people from Tide~ Let’s Talk Climate Change project A new Let’s Talk project led by young people in Birmingham responds to climate change, its challenges, and its implications for learners. Daniel Stone and Gary Sambrook from the project shared some of their hopes for the projects, which will include reporting back to City Councillors on some of the lessons learnt. The project has been supported by the DEFRA Climate Challenge Fund |
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Learning for a change?
Starting the afternoon session, Margaret Danby and Stephanie Davies profiled some key WMnet opportunities, including plans for a new project on Young People’s Climate Change Messages, and for the further development of the Climate Change in the Curriculum portal.
See: http://climatechange.wmnet.org.uk
These initiatives are also supported by the DEFRA Climate Challenge Fund
The day concluded with a presentation from Professor Bill Scott, which outlined key challenges about Quality learning and sustainable development, and which left participants with substantial questions about what teaching approaches are appropriate for different types of understanding about sustainable development.
For a copy of Bill’s Powerpoint click here
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Workshops
Throughout the day, teachers, educators and partners from the Tide~ network offered a range of creative workshops.
ws1 Thinking through climate change
Facilitators:
Ruth Henshaw, The Wakeman School and Malcolm Smith, Severn Trent WaterThis workshop shared ideas and thinking from this innovative teacher project facilitated by WMnet with Tide~, which developed e-learning materials with a strong thinking skills emphasis. Ruth and Malcolm played a lead role in this project, and come from primary and secondary teaching backgrounds respectively. The e-learning materials were launched at this conference and can be accessed through the WMnet climate change portal http://climatechange.wmnet.org.uk
ws2 Global science
Facilitator:
Graham Jackson, Association for Science EducationThis workshop drew on the work of ASE’s Global dimensions in Science project, and took a particular focus on aspects of scientific learning which respond to the challenge of global climate change.
ws3 Young researchers
Facilitator:
Suzanne Welch, Education Manager, GLOBE ProgrammeThis workshop shared experiences from a WMnet project where young people used ICT to research and share data on global climate change. This arose from a partnership with the GLOBE programme, an international environmental education project. See www.globe.org.uk
ws4 Creative responses
Facilitator:
Rupert Brakspear, Worcestershire County CouncilA group of Worcestershire High Schools have started working together on this project, which invites learners to design products and solutions which bear climate change in mind. Rupert is playing a leading role in this project as ESD Officer for Worcestershire. Contact rbrakspear@worcestershire.gov.uk ws5 Consuming passions
Facilitator:
Alison Farrell, Groundwork Birmingham and SolihullTide~ has been working with Groundwork West Midlands to look at local and global approaches to waste and recycling issues. This session drew on Alison’s extensive experience in environmental education, and included material drawn from her work in the Gambia as part of a Tide~ study visit course. What have we learnt?
ws6 In the frame
Facilitator:
Becky Link, Severn Trent Water/West Midlands CoalitionThe new DfES framework for sustainable schools raises a wide range of questions and opportunities for the schools sector. What do we make of it? What support might schools need to respond imaginatively to it? Becky Link led this session in her capacity as chair of the Liaison Group for West Midlands Coalition Framework 2: Sustainable Development. Becky is a former Primary and Middle school teacher, and now works as Community Education Advisor for Severn Trent Water.
ws7 Worlds of experience – ESD and outdoor learning
Facilitator:
Andrew Simons, Centre of the EarthHow might we use learning in the environment to develop a positive disposition to sustainable development? This session invited participants to get to grips with this question both practically and through discussion, in the context of both the DfES framework and the Education Outside the Classroom Manifesto. It drew on Andrew’s considerable experience as an educator and trainer … including recent creative work with others in the region.
ws8 Sustainable schools – creating change
Facilitator:
Stephen Pickering, University of Worcester/ Worcestershire County CouncilThis workshop used tools developed by a group of heads and senior managers for supporting a whole school response to sustainability, and the leadership questions involved. Stephen, formerly a Middle school teacher in Worcestershire, is an ESD officer for the county and Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at the University of Worcester.
ws9 Small steps and giant leaps
Facilitators:
Jenny Doyle, Forest Schools and Jon Cree, Bishop’s Wood CentreHow can we support young learners’ engagement with sustainable development and climate change? This session shared innovative work at KS1 and the Foundation stage. Jenny Doyle is an experienced Early Years practitioner and Chair of Forest School [England] Network, while her co-facilitator Jon Cree is Education and Training Officer at the Bishop’s Wood Centre in Worcestershire.
ws10 Out to lunch?
Facilitator: Ben Ballin, Tide~ What children eat connects them to people and environments all over the world. The Global lunchbox project focuses on school lunchboxes, and enabling children to think through choices which are healthy for them, the environment and other people worldwide. Initial work by teacher groups raises many challenging questions – and stimulating ideas.
Speaker biographies
Roger Crouch took up the new post of Director for Children and Learners in Government Office of the West Midlands in September 2005. Roger is responsible for all DfES led policy in the region from early years through to lifelong learning and higher education. He also has a particular focus on the establishment of integrated Children’s Services across the region.
Roger also jointly heads the Government Office’s South East Division and has lead responsibility for Coventry and Warwickshire. From 2000-2005 Roger was Executive Director of the Learning and Skills Council in Gloucestershire and before that he was Director of Education for Gloucestershire County Council. Roger began his public service career with the Greater London Council in 1986 and subsequently worked in education and local government in London and Kent.
Dr Jake Reynolds is Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development, at the DfES, on loan to the Department from the Sustainable Development Commission where he is Team Leader, Education and Young People. Before this, he was Deputy Director of the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, the University’s centre for leadership and change for sustainable development. Prior to CPI, he led the capacity building efforts of the UN’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, working on projects in Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia.
John Rhymer represents education at SWM, through his role as adviser for ESD at Worcestershire Children’s Services and head of the Bishops Wood Centre. He has played an active role in various DfES Sustainable Schools Framework consultation groups and is a member of the Sustainability Commission Working Group on Sustainable Schools and Every Child Matters.
See his article: Increasing the role for schools in contributing to a sustainable society
Sustainability West Midlands is the independent regional champion for Sustainable Development and provides advice to regional policy partnerships and the region as a whole on sustainability issues. See www.sustainabilitywestmidlands.org.uk
Professor Bill Scott is Director of the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment at the University of Bath, where he is also Professor of Education and Head of the Curriculum and Pedagogy Group. He has a particular interest in the role of learning within sustainable development, and the contributions that teachers and institutions can make to this.
He has published widely on sustainable development education, including Sustainable Development and Learning: framing the issues [with Stephen Gough, 2003]. See also his earlier contribution to Tide~ Talk: Growing ideas – some food for thought
Alan Simpson MP The New Statesman dubbed Alan Simpson "the backbencher most likely to come up with ideas." Since being elected in 1992 as the MP for Nottingham South, Alan has been a leading voice in the debate about a sustainable future. From ending fuel poverty to challenging globalisation, from writing new policies on pensions to launching the Food Justice Campaign [and being a member of Italy’s Slow Food Movement], Alan sees Parliament as a platform for the ideas that will change our future.
Alan has been Chair of the Parliamentary Warm Homes Group of MPs for almost ten years, is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and is tennis adviser to the Minister for Sport. He has recently promoted a Bill seeking to change energy markets from their current focus on consumption to one of conservation and renewables. He has been a winner of the Parliamentary Environmental Campaigner of the Year Award and has just completed work on his own sustainable house. See www.alansimpsonmp.co.uk
Tony Wray Prior to joining Severn Trent Water as Managing Director, Tony Wray was a director of networks at Eircom. After graduating from Sheffield University with a BSc Hons in Geology, he joined British Gas as a graduate trainee in 1983. By 2000, he had progressed to Director of Asset Management at Transco, He then became National Operations Manager at Transco before being appointed Integration Director on the Lattice/National Grid merger.
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