6. – It then requires that the governing body of a maintained secondary school must have regard to guidance under this section.
7. – And requires the Secretary of State to review guidance under this section from time to time
8. – It defines “citizenship” to include programmes of study that encourage learning to protect and restore the natural environment for present and future generations, including but not limited to climate change considerations." This applies to Key Stages 1 to 4.
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So, what to make of this? The clever bit is probably requiring the Secretary of State to give guidance about the provision of education under section 80(1)(f), although this only applies to secondary schools (and then only to those that take any notice of the national curriculum). This is what DfE has been most reluctant to do up to now. This guidance is so that pupils will learn about the impact of human behaviour on the natural environment and can develop skills [i] to protect and restore it, and [ii] to measure the impact of their actions.
It goes (almost) without saying that the effectiveness of this amendment will depend on the way that the guidance is written: its scope and detail, and its open or closed focus. In particular, on how "skills" and "actions" are defined.
Doing so with a generosity of spirit could result in meaningful change. Done with narrow-minded parsimony, it will be likely be little more than business as usual with the interested schools and teachers addressing issues, and the uninterested carrying on as now. A crucial question, I guess, is to what extent this guidance represents a programme of study. I imagine that DfE will want to avoid this.
Responses
Much as expected. ie, both its contents and your “cautious” review of them.