October 2022

When I went to university as an undergraduate to study chemistry (back in 1965) one of the first tasks we were set in physical chemistry was to estimate how many molecules from Caesar's last breath we were now breathing in....

Nick Gibb is back at the DfE, but not (it seems) in his old role as minister of state for school standards.  Given that it was never clear why he was sacked in the first place, there might be some...

I watched the recent England v. Samoa rugby league world cup match which was rather one-sided in the end, I thought.  I only switched on with a couple of minutes of the introduction to go, but wasn't late enough to...

The AGC (or A-GC if you're a stickler for syntactical niceties) was our shape-shifting government's enemy of choice: the "anti-growth coalition"; this is a catch-all phrase for all those "holding Britain back". It reminds me of (as a lot of...

When you are trying to encourage one thing and discourage another – say a technologically-driven shift from brown to green(er) widgets – is it better to subsidise the green type or tax the brown? This is a question that I'd...

A conversation at the engaging Teach the Future Adult Advisory Board the other day brought to mind research on schools sending youngsters home in the hope of positively influencing parental environmental actions.  What follows is from memory which might be...

It is 60 years on from the publication of Silent Spring in 1962.  A recent feature in The Economist explored the legacy of this iconic book. In the book that Paul Vare and I wrote, Learning, Environment and Sustainable Development: a history...

It has been inspiring to see the school protests in Iran over the regime's misogynistic dress codes and its thuggish behaviours.  I'm used to seeing pictures of young people (mostly it seems girls and young woman) across the world protesting...

I see that the King has been prevented from going to COP27 in Egypt next month.  That’s to say, he was advised against it by the government and he's taken the advice. What a pity. You have to wonder why...

On Monday, in the NAEE weekly news round-up, there was a short focus on the new DfE ministerial team which you can see here.  The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP is the Secretary of State for Education Kelly Tolhurst MP is the Minister for...