July 2019

  • The fight to build a better, happier, safer world must include open borders

    So says Ruth London, a campaigner on climate and energy justice in a recent Ecologist: A good friend told me that however hopeless things feel we have to keep fighting, even if there is just one chance in a million of preventing runaway...

  • Climate activism education

    I see from a recent NAEE weekly webwatch that there’s a climate activism education event in London on Saturday October 12th.  It's sponsored by NUS, UCU and NEU. This conference is aimed at "workers and students from across the world of...

  • Minding that GAP

    Breathless news from UNESCO ... "60 Key Partners of the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) met in Ha Noi, Vietnam, from 4 to 5 July 2019, for a final annual meeting of the GAP Partner Networks...

  • Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

    Farewell then Damian Patrick George Hinds.  Sacked yesterday: another Secretary of State for Education who no one will remember in 6 months.  And what about his big idea, the Character Ed expert panel?  Can it survive the carnage, I wonder?...

  • Divestment at the National Trust

    I see that the National Trust has announced that it will be divesting away from fossil fuels within the next three years.  Peter Vermeulen, the charity’s Chief Financial Officer, is reported as saying: “The Trust has just over a billion...

  • Trees on campus

    Here's a message sent by Jamie Agombar, the Head of Sustainability at NUS to the EAUC Member list last week.  It shows a level of ambition for universities that those responsible for guiding the sector [eg, the Office for Students]...

  • Forget Villanelle; the UK has 7.5 million assassins at large

    According to the Pet Food Manufactures Association [PFMA] there are 7.5 million domestic cats in the UK, the vast majority of which have a negative effect on wildlife and biodiversity.  How could we move to an effective policy to gradually...

  • Unsuccessful Futures in Wales

    I see that the hapless Welsh government is having another go at curriculum reform – finally embarrassed by its PISA scores, perhaps.  This is called “Successful Futures”.  Inexplicably I note that it has hired the guru who designed Scotland’s woeful Curriculum...

  • Train or car: a carbon comparison

    I went to London recently by train (and returned).  On my ticket receipt, Last Great Western noted that they had contributed 29.54 kg to the atmosphere on my behalf to get me there.  Had I gone by car, I'd have contributed...

  • Remembering Robert Lowe

    I thought of Robert Lowe this morning.  He was the minister responsible for education policy who introduced Payments by Results into English schools in 1860s.  This is such a pellucidly clear policy that it needs no explanation here.  As he...