February 2020

  • My TES bookends

    It's 48 years ago this month that I had a letter published in the Times Educational Supplement.  I was a PGCE student at the time and on school placement (teaching practice), and I hoped that no one at my comprehensive...

  • Teach the Future in parliament

    As I noted yesterday, I went to the Teach the Future parliamentary reception.  I thought that this was a great success in terms of the event itself.  It worked well with a really excellent student speech, I thought.   I was...

  • Off to parliament with modest expectations

    I'm going to the House of Commons today to the reception organised by Teach the Future.  I'm representing NAEE which is a strong supporter of young people's efforts to bring about the sort of curriculum change that represents an entitlement...

  • Climate tensions at the BBC

    Thanks to the NAEE weekly round up for the story that the BBC  is working with Greta Thunberg on a new series about climate change.  Rob Liddell, a BBC Studios Executive Producer gushed: “Climate change is probably the most important issue of our...

  • Climate Anxiety 101

    Eco-anxiety has been described as a source of stress when people watch "the slow and seemingly irrevocable impacts of climate change unfold, and worrying about the future for oneself, children, and later generations… affected by feelings of loss, helplessness, and...

  • The Journal of Referee Reports

    I see that Nature (a Springer journal) is opening up the mysteries of the peer-review process.  See this report in the THE.  About time, many say.  Hang on a bit, others respond. Dr Ritu Dhand, vice-president at Nature Journals, told the THE that...

  • Zoos – part 6

    Regular readers will know that I don't like zoos.  I include so-called safari parks.  I regard them as little better than prisons for other species where humans go to gawp just as our ancestors in less enlightened times used to...

  • Disgrace down under

    It seems bad form to kick a country when it's down, but the Australian government is a disgrace.  Its prime minister claims that that it will “meet and beat” its greenhouse-gas emissions reduction goals, but that seems fanciful, even though the...

  • Happy Birthday LEEF

    Despite the difficulties of train travel, it was a real pleasure to attend a 30th anniversary meeting of LEEF (London Environmental Educators' Forum) on Monday at the London Natural History Museum.  This was a well-attended, well-organised event with a theme...

  • My LEEF conference responses

    As I noted on Thursday last, the text in bold on this page are the questions that the panel at the LEEF conference will be responding to.  I've set out here what I'll try to remember to say, although I...