March 2012

  • DfID rediscovers its interest in schools – and a pot of gold

    Think Global reports today on DFID plans to fund a Global Learning Programme for England which will “increase and improve the teaching and learning, at Key Stages 2 and 3, of issues related to global poverty”. The programme will run,...

  • That presumption in favour of sustainable development ...

    It seems that the government's National Planning Policy Framework now has sustainable development's being seen in terms of a (local) collective interest.  This is a quote from the Telegraph's on-line reporting of the 5 principles of reform: They establish a...

  • Local green innovators

    The Wiltshire Times is reporting the success of a local primary school [ Sutton Veny ] in reaching the national finals of the 'Climate Week Challenge'.   The school’s entry was designed is based on an idea for a Friendly Cow...

  • "... as a rule he was curiously uncritical about his own ideas"

    It is said that Cambridge astrophysicist, Arthur Eddington thought that, in the early 1920s, there were only two people who really understood relativity: Einstein – and Arthur Eddington.  He held the Plumian Chair of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy for over 30...

  • EAUC endorses Rio+20 initiative

    EAUC has endorsed the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative for Rio+20, and is clearly pleased at being asked: The EAUC is delighted to announce that it has joined a number of other international organisations to officially endorse the Higher Education Sustainability...

  • State of the Union 2011

    Sustainable Development in the European Union is the 2011 monitoring report on the EU's sustainable development Strategy (EU SDS).  This is the fourth report charting progress in the implementation of the 2006 strategy which describes how the EU will more...

  • So, What are universities for?

    Stefan Collini seems to be wherever you look; well, his book reviews are: THE, the Observer, and the Economist – which goes to show something of my narrow reading these days.  But for someone like me, who is a part-time student...

  • Speaking in Inverness – sort of

    Perhaps oddly, I gave my first talk via Skype the other day.  To Inverness, virtually, then, at a conference on Educating for a Low Carbon Future organised by the University of Highlands and Islands, SEAM Centre at Inverness College, CIFAL...

  • The name's Bond – Aaron Bond

    If you'd been lately browsing geek.com – essential reading, I find – you'd likely have come across the sad tale of  Devon's King Edward VI College and its expulsion of  14 year old Aaron Bond.  Was AB disruptive?  Was he violent?...

  • Breaking news ...

    Fame at last: a letter published in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review.  This is what we [the Mitcheldean 8] wrote: Dear Sir Does an environmental/outdoor education centre have a role to play in what various political leaders...