Category Archives: Learning for Sustainability

Learning for Sustainability

#ReadyToVote – Scotland’s Schools Registration Event, March 2016

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readytovoteThe Electoral Commission invites all schools to take part in: #ReadyToVote – Scotland’s Schools Registration Event, March 2016.

It is easy for schools to take part. They just need to select a day during the month of March and encourage their students to go online and register to vote. The Electoral Commission is providing schools with a toolkit which will contain everything they need to deliver the event.

If you would like to take part and be sent a copy of the toolkit please email Jonathan Mitchell, at the Electoral Commission jmitchell@electoralcommission.org.uk supplying your schools’ name and contact details.

This initiative is being delivered in partnership with Education Scotland, SOLACE, ADES, SLS, ERO’s, SCIS, and Colleges Scotland.

 

Learning for Sustainability, Outdoor Learning

LfS and the Shieling Project

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Shileing 1

Before outdoor learning there was the shieling.  For hundreds of years, each summer young people all over Scotland would take the livestock up to hill or moorland pastures, camping there in small bothies, learning about the world beyond the village. The Shieling Project brings the shieling back to life for young people and teachers, through outdoor learning, resources and professional learning for teachers.

Sam Harrison, who runs the Shieling Project explains “Through this tradition we can look at so many subjects across the curriculum, and work skills from archaeology to forestry, as well as exploring global sustainability themes through hands on local learning experiences.”

The Shieling Project professional learning programme in learning for sustainability will run again from this May.  The year long course leads to professional recognition from the GTCS in Learning for Sustainability.

Based in Glen Strathfarrar, near Beauly, four weekend workshops, two days of outdoor learning with your class and an online forum provide an opportunity to build a critical, supportive and collaborative community.  The course costs £900.

For more information, including a video of the first cohort of teachers presenting their learning journeys, click here.

For a full list of courses that can lead to professional recognition, visit the GTCS website .

Learning for Sustainability

School Grounds: Funding Opportunity

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5p Are you keen to develop school grounds, community gardens or other community spaces? The Tesco Local Community Scheme now provides funding to support projects in school or nursery grounds – even those without public access. The fund is for 140 grants of £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000.

A brief expression of interest  should be completed by Friday 11th December. The full application  is due for submission by January 15th 2016.

The grants are funded from the money raised from the 5p bag charge in Tesco stores. The grant programme is administered by Groundwork, working with Greenspace Scotland.

Thanks to Grounds for Learning for sharing this exciting news.

 

 

 

Learning for Sustainability

GLOW Meet: Get ready for winter

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grwDon’t get caught out with bad weather this winter! Doing small things now can save a lot of trouble later. Take part in our Glow TV event to hear important information from the Met Office, a flood officer and Sustrans on why you need to get ready and what you can do. This will include getting your home and bike ready for winter. Our experts are keen to answer your questions too. This is a great opportunity to get ready for winter!

This glow meet is suitable for upper primary and lower secondary and will be on Tuesday 24th November at 10.45 – 11.45. Sign up to register here.

In the meantime, visit bit.ly/RfEScot Ready for Winter page to get ideas to use with your class. You’ll find a power point, short video and learning journeys packed full of ideas to get you started. Keep safe this winter!

Global Citizenship, Learning for Sustainability

More ways to learn about the Global Goals

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Worlds_largest_lesson_In the week that the Scottish Government joins UNICEF in launching the World’s Largest Lesson, more schools have been sharing their learning around the Global Goals. One such school is Sciennes Primary School in Edinburgh, who have been blogging about their journey to become a ‘Rights Respecting School’. Click here to find out how learners have been raising the profile of Goal 1 – No Poverty and Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities. Keep up the good work Sciennes learners and bloggers!

Global Citizenship, Learning for Sustainability, Outdoor Learning, Uncategorized

LfS national practitioner network launched

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The first meeting of the Learning for Sustainability national practitioner network took place on Friday 30th October. Practitioners representing nineteen different local authorities worked alongside partner organisations (including Keep Scotland Beautiful, WOSDEC, LfS Scotland and Architecture and Design Scotland) during a very productive day of conversation, sharing and planning. Class teachers, faculty and department heads, principal teachers, head teachers, depute heads, curriculum support officers and child development officers got together to share some of the fantastic work already taking place.

The wealth of experience and commitment to LfS was wholly evident, as was the enthusiasm and determination of delegates to ensure that their efforts have an impact in their local authorities and beyond. Comments on the LfS Newsfeed included:

pract walls“Loved hearing about all the excellent LfS projects going on across Scotland…inspiring stuff! Looking forward to collaborating with like minded people to spread the good work more widely.”

“Great to share practice and successes across different sectors. Need to identify gaps and future opportunities for Learning for Sustainability (LfS) to ensure we keep the momentum going.”

“Great morning so far at the LfS practitioners network. Lots of really inspiring work going on all across Scotland!”

The full range of discussions, approaches and resources shared can be found in the LfS professional learning community . However, the list below picks out some of the tasks that network members are planning to take forward through a process of collaboration and co-creation:

  • Getting started : LfS whole school strategic approaches in the secondary school
  • Professional review and development resource: getting the most out of LfS in the standards
  • Progression and transitions: programmes of support to build on LfS successes
  • LfS in National Qualifications
  • Progression in secondary using the John Muir Award
  • Planning and progression in ASL sector
  • Using new GLOW functionality (Delve) to organise curricular resources
  • LfS-specific Resource Calendar
  • Outdoor learning skills progression

Please join in the discussions if you are keen to be part of this process. If your local authority is not already represented on this network, please contact Anthony.Hutcheson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk  for further information.

 

 

Global Citizenship, Learning for Sustainability

Refugees facing winter freeze

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A common refrain over the weekend of the clocks going back is that we can have “an extra hour in our bed.” As we prepare for the transition from autumn to winter, pictures emerging from Associated Press’ twitter feed show drone photography of a continuing stream of refugees heading through the Balkan countryside. For them, just one hour in their own bed in the face of dropping temperatures and increasingly complex arrangements for finding sanctuary, is a forlorn hope.

Meanwhile, the UNHCRC are warning of an increasing polarisation in the views of Europeans in their response to the refugee crisis. The head of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker, has spoken out on the distinct possibility of refugees “freezing to death”.

GLP-S editMany educators will already have found ways of engaging pupils with the refugee crisis (See previous post on IDEAS network resources). For others, however there may not yet have been the time or opportunity.

This Thursday, SCOTDEC is offering a practical session aiming to provide ideas, methodologies and resources for teachers to explore the refugee crisis . This session will be co-delivered with the British Red Cross. You can sign up here.

Christian Aid have also produced an assembly resource Christian_Aid_Logo_svgwith speaker notes and accompanying PowerPoint that may provide a helpful way in to discussing the issue as a whole class/ school. You can access the resources here.

 

Learning for Sustainability

LfS e-bulletin for October

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Bringing you the latest news about learning for sustainability (LfS) including global citizenship, outdoor learning, sustainable development education, children’s rights and play.

Sign up to receive e-bulletin.

Research and reflection

Research from the National Union of Students (NUS) shows that 80% of students want their institutions to be doing more on sustainability, while 60% want to learn more about it. The research is accompanied by a parallel study on employer attitudes towards sustainable development.

Global Citizenship, Learning for Sustainability

Aiming for the Global Goals

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St Eunan's food bank

A number of schools have started learning about the newly agreed Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Scotland was one of the first nations in the world to sign up to the Global Goals, building on the Scottish Government’s existing commitment to the learning for sustainability agenda.

One of the key commitments on education in Global goal 4.7 is that our children and young people are fully involved in building a more sustainable and equitable future. It states that by 2030 we must “ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.”

One school in West Dunbartonshire has stolen a march on the 2030 deadline and is already out tackling Global Goal #2 – No Hunger. You can read more about St Eunan’s Primary 7’s learning on food justice and food inequality in their class blog.

Well done to all involved and good luck with your ongoing activities at West Dunbartonshire Community Food Share. If any other classes are blogging about the Global Goals or any other LfS activities, please email Anthony.Hutcheson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk  or let us know on Twitter @EdScotLfS .

Click here for a short animation, created by Sir Ken Robinson, on the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

 

 

Learning for Sustainability

Apply for extra places on LfS practitioner network

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Additional places available for practitioners and leaders with a passion for LfS

LfS wordcloud

Are you passionate about learning for sustainability (LfS)? Do you have experience of leading on one or more aspects of LfS in your educational setting? Are you willing to share what has worked for you and be inspired by other committed practitioners across Scotland?

Additional places have become available on the LfS national practitioner network. Offers of places have already been made through the LfS local authority network. However, if you have not registered an interest through your local authority and would like to be considered for one of the additional places, please email Anthony.Hutcheson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk .

The network will be convened by Education Scotland in partnership with the Forestry Commission Scotland. The first meeting took place on Friday 30th October 2015.  The second meeting will take place on Friday 11th December 2015. The third meeting has been arranged for Thursday 4th February 2016. Venues tbc.

Aims

The purpose of the network is to create time and space for a cross-authority group to:

  • share practice and successes
  • work in a coordinated way to identify gaps in the system and co-create new resources and approaches
  • disseminate these resources immediately to all practitioners through Glow
  • work in partnership with national LfS providers to build capacity in the system
  • share successes and impact through a range of digital platforms.

Person specification

To contribute effectively to the national network we are looking for individuals with skills and expertise across the following areas:

  • passionate about learning for sustainability
  • excellent knowledge of CfE and a range of LfS themes and approaches. These may include some or all of the following areas: global citizenship, sustainable development education, international education, outdoor learning and children’s rights
  • experience of leading and/or contributing to effective change, development and improvement in LfS at school/local and/or national level
  • proven track record of planning and delivering high quality learning experiences
  • ability to take a flexible, creative and collaborative approach to working with a range of other practitioners and partners
  • excellent written communication and IT skills to explain the values of sustainability to a range of audiences, while consistently reflecting upon and modelling those same values
  • awareness of emerging research and policy developments and how they relate to LfS
  • ability to disseminate resources, approaches and understanding to peers across their authority.