News and Updates

  • What are those hidden EE gems?

    A New Year mail from Justin Dillon and Alan Reid who asked for suggestions of material to go into a publication in the Routledge  ‘major works’ series which is intended to draw from material that has already been published.  The task is...

  • Just don’t mention the other C word

    An email yesterday from the SDE Network in Scotland, announcing a new year conference.  It said: We are delighted to formally invite you to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Conference jointly hosted by the Scottish Government and...

  • China embraces the circular economy

    Recent reports, in New Scientist amongst other sources, say that the Chinese are adapting to circular economy ideas.  Here is a report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation itself, including this link to ChinaDaily which reports ... The park includes three "recycling...

  • Southampton's Sustainability Videos

    I spent an enjoyable hour on Friday afternoon last week watching a dozen or so student videos that Simon Kemp kindly alerted the SHED network to. Simon wrote ... I would like to alert you to our ‘Sustainability Film Festival’...

  • Managing the Sustainable Schools Alliance

    I wrote a while ago about the re-birth of the Sustainable Schools Alliance.   A proposed management board for the Alliance met two weeks ago.  It was a good turn out with a good mix of organisations around the table, including: Anglian...

  • A train wreck of an energy policy

    I have been watching the run-away train that is the government's new energy bill as it careers towards us.  I've thought all along, as I have listened to rumour and leaks, that, surely, no one could be so stupid as...

  • Can we please have an environmental education that takes economics seriously?

    One of the problems of trying to be an environmental educator is how do you take the need for social and economic change seriously when you're addressing the environment. It seems axiomatic that this has to be done, one way...

  • Are England’s PISA test scores really “plummeting”?

    Browsing the Guardian, I came across John Jerrim's 2011 (but suddenly very topical) report for the Institute of Education: England’s “plummeting” PISA test scores between 2000 and 2009: Is the performance of our secondary school pupils really in relative decline? Here’s the...

  • LSIS's lingering death finally confirmed; Long live the FE Guild

    DBIS has announced that its funding the the Learning and Skills Improvement service will come to an end in August 2013.  This is the last of a series of cuts in recent years.  LSIS has confirmed that it will cease...

  • The bad faith of learning outcomes

    Last week's THE brought a blast of clear air honesty in its wake: Frank Furedi on the bad faith of learning outcomes. Question: "Professor Furedi, how do you get around learning outcomes?" Answer: "I just make them up and ignore...