News:
- Finalised DfE Sustainability and climate change Strategy launched last week and is available here
Responses to the strategy:
NEU press release is here
Teach the Future’s response is here.
Let’s Go Zero press release is here.
This strategy falls flat on key issues, but opens up some possibilities. We’ll discuss it at the Next NEU Climate Network meeting – pencilled in for Monday May 16th 6.30 -7.30pm. Confirmation and link will be sent soon.
- NEU Conference Climate Motion
Motion 16 was passed at the NEU conference in Bournemouth over the Easter break. The motion includes instruction to campaign to make buildings carbon neutral, implement the Educational International manifesto and achieve a new legislative framework for transition.
Read the press release here on the passing of the motion
View the full motion on Page 27 of the conference agenda here.
Upcoming Events:
- South West Climate Summit, Sat 7th May 1-5pm, the Station, Bristol, in-person and online
This Climate Summit brings together individuals, groups, union organisations, all committed to fighting for a sustainable world, including Jeremy Corbyn and Trevor Ngwane from South Africa.
Workshops include: Climate strategy and just transition; The Global South and Climate Justice; Energy, war and climate
It would be great to have NEU members bringing the education perspective at this event – register here.
- Teach the Teacher – An introduction to the climate crisis and teaching climate in the classroom – Tuesday 3rd May 5:00pm – 6:00pm Register Here
A recent survey in the UK found that 70% of teachers reported that they had not received training on any aspects of climate change: Teach the Teacher aims to address that.
Building on a campaign that has trained teachers in 21 countries, this webinar will be a training session in climate and environmental literacy taught by students, explaining the content we want to be taught, and how we want to be taught it.
This campaign is led by Mock COP, an international youth-led organisation focused on youth inclusion in climate decision-making. Teach the Teacher is a shared campaign, run by Mock COP, SOS-UK, EARTHDAY.ORG and Education International. This session will be led by Phoebe Hansen, who delivered it to DFE officials at the COP (so they have no excuses).
Book Launch
Leadership for Sustainability: Saving the planet one school at a time by Dr David Dixon. An informative greenprint to help school leaders play their part in making their schools more environmentally friendly and better places to learn for all. More information via this link.
Other:
- Do it yourself air filter – Corsi-Rosenthal Box Filter, from Barnet NEU
The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is a DIY Air Cleaner that costs under $100 USD, matches a $900 HEPA air cleaner for performance, and can be built as a science project by a class of ten-year-olds. This is a useful tool to prevent the spread of covid-19, and more generally to ensure breathing cleaner air in classrooms.
To find out more, contact crboxneu@gmail.com Useful Documents are available at the following links:
Letter/Evidence: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iW1LVRBi9BF5ZI4mZnTHY6xcQgtub948aPseU2LfEUc/edit?usp=sharing
Risk Assessment:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gVipt36S0-G24BiePxkWe4dDBT1fPKyW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111920039153572167560&rtpof=true&sd=true
This is another compilation document from America which is great to refer to:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mYx-UiC-pzFQFr5VaIGwAMvkLSL4H28e6y3YgZZDNK0/mobilebasic#