A blog providing ideas and resources for those teachers hoping to teach the new GCSE Specification, first announced in April 2022. Draft subject content released for consultation in June 2026 - for first teaching from 2028 or 2029.
These include concerns over the shortage of teachers who might teach the new specification, and the fieldwork elements of the course. The fieldwork may be difficult for some schools due to their location, but may also adversely affect the habitats that students are being asked to investigate.
The estate manages 8500 acres in a large block, running up towards Gayton near King's Lynn.
A walking map is also available.
The website provides details on their activity.
Henry Birkbeck - used the estate for shooting and with farming and agriculture over one hundred years ago. Alex Birkbeck showed the presenters around the estate. He is the estate Manager. He took over when he was about thirty.
The main house was sold off (to Anthony Gormley) in 2010.
Rewilding efforts are taking place in the wet woodland areas of the estate. The drought affected this activity. There are lots of ponds on the estate (over 250) which help with water management and the biodiversity of the estate, particularly invertrebrates and amphibians.
Plants are left to grow on the south side of the pond to create shade for the pond during the summer months.
The estate runs a permanent glamping and festival site within the woods near the village of West Acre.
I have visited that in the past for a birthday party and it's a great venue with fire pit, and space for food and also music.
The estate runs a pub in West Acre called The Stag.
Eggs are also produced on the estate - the wild eggs mentioned on the website. Poultry are kept, and free range turkeys and outdoor geese, along with some pigs. These are run by tenants, who hire the land off the estate. This is a good way of increasing activity without additional cost.
Straw is given free of charge to the tenants, which then comes back to the estate as manure and is put onto the arable fields. A bale of straw can cost £40-50. There are limits to how much chicken manure can be put on the fields to avoid eutrophification through high nitrogen levels in the manure. This is then used on fields where oil seed rape has been drilled for the following year. This saves on purchasing fertiliser, the price of which has gone up. There is also the rent from the tenants to add an income.
The Estate has a range of tenants who run a variety of businesses. They include bike hire, and some self catering accommodation.
There is also a brewery - Duration. This is one of my favourite breweries and they have a great range of beers, plus a tap room and sales counter. On a hot day, sitting outside the old barn with a cold beer is very pleasant.
Waste grain from the brewing process is collected and used to feed wagyu beef cattle and pigs at local farms.
The cows are subsequently turned into meat, some of which is then sold as an ingredient in the pies at the brewery's events. This helps to create a more 'circular' flow of resources.
Beer is sold to local pubs - about 60% stays in county, but I have found it in London and further afield in cans.
The brewery puts on events most weekends in the summer, with food trucks providing additional food without the brewery needing their own kitchen.
The owners try to position it as a destination brewery. It has to draw people to it as it is in a rural area.
Blueberries were described as the 'biggest gamble'. A field was planted six years ago.
Only 8% of the blueberries eaten in the UK are grown here. The estate has invested in an autonomous, solar powered harvester. Properties were sold off to pay for this. The blueberries are put into a gin made locally too, by WhataHoot distillery.
The machine costs two years' worth of labour costs, but these are the biggest cost and will increase over time. It cost over £200 000.
They also grow chick peas.
The estate has two reservoirs... they are apparently down to 5% capacity.
They also have polytunnels to rear trees from local seeds for rewilding.
"It decreases the carbon footprint, prevents non-native invasion, provides certified healthy trees and promotes the maintenance and restoration of native woodlands."
The ownership of the land on the estate has been explored on the Who owns Norfolk website.
This also mentions Olly Birkbeck, who owns the 2,300 acre Little Massingham Estate, just a short 10 minute drive from West Acre.
There is plenty more information on this part of Norfolk on the site.
To explore the estate why not walk the West Acre Way, developed for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
The GCSE Natural History will probably ask for a study of an area to look at rewilding and sustainability efforts, and there are some good elements of that in this area.
They also organise occasional walks and visits to the estate. Keep an eye out for those if you are in the local area.
One of the most likely places for teachers (particularly in London) to take students for the GCSE Natural History course will be the Natural History Museum.
I've blogged about it before and will do again numerous times I imagine.
Google has an Arts and Culture section. It is well worth exploring.
The main room in the museum is the Hintze Hall. This was previously home to 'Dippy the dinosaur' between 1905 and 2017 (if you want to see him, he's currently - at the time of blogging - in Coventry).
It is currently home to Hope, the Blue Whale.
Beyond the whale though is the amazing ceiling. The site explains its depiction of natural history and there is a hugely detailed photo that can be explored.
The soaring vault is a golden cover for a spectacular natural treasure trove, adorned with 162 illustrated panels showing plants from across the world.
A gleaming canopy has been created with paintings set against wood, glass and metal, fashioning a roof that complements the splendour of the specimens below.
Each panel tells a story - of emerging and fallen empires, prosperity and slavery, and explorers pushing the boundaries of the known world.
Alfred Waterhouse, who designed the Museum, almost certainly dreamt up the ceiling's concept and probably sketched the original designs.
Scroll down to find out a lot more about the ceiling.
Here's a picture of mine from 2014.
Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license.
Robert MacFarlane shared earlier today that he will be giving the BBC's Reith Lectures for this year. This BBC piece provides more details.
At a time of ecological crisis, extreme weather events and a rapidly heating climate, Robert Macfarlane’s Reith Lectures will examine what is in his view one of the most consequential stories humans tell themselves: that our species stands above and apart from the rest of nature.
Throughout the series, titled The Human Superiority Complex, Macfarlane will argue that this belief has become deeply rooted in Western thought, and has helped bring the planet to the brink of catastrophe.
Drawing on inspiring examples from around the world, the four lectures will also highlight the scientists, artists, activists, lawmakers and communities who are challenging this worldview and opening the possibility of different, more just futures for life on Earth.
One of our most influential writers on landscape, language and the living world, Macfarlane brings more than two decades of acclaimed work to the lectures. A bestselling author, his books have reached readers around the world, while his collaborations across art, film, music and performance connect ideas from literature, science, culture and public life.
The 2026 lectures will be recorded in front of live audiences in London, Bangor, Aberdeen and Amsterdam. They will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service later this year and will be available to listen to on BBC Sounds.
Audiences can apply for free tickets to the recordings from late September, via the BBC website. I’ll try and let you know when they become available.
This has all the makings of a superb weekend. I'm going to attend a few of the events all being well.
It's been running for a few years now.
The Festival features a whole range of events broadly on the theme of landscape, connected to North Norfolk. This includes art, literature, and field events.
They mostly take place in and around the Norfolk town of Wells next the Sea, including some boat trips on the marshes and a few events outside of the town.
Here's some of the events on Saturday
There is an exhibition of paintings including some from one of my favourite contemporary artists: Fred Ingrams, who frequently paints in the Fens. I have the catalogue of one of his exhibitions of Fenland paintings which has a great introduction and description of the landscape from Jonathan Meades.
The nearest Field Studies Council Centre to me is Flatford Mill in Suffolk.
I've visited quite a few times over the years, and have also visited quite a few centres including Juniper Hall, Slapton Ley, Malham Tarn, Preston Montford (including for a job interview at the FSC many years back - I was unsuccessful) and the centre in East London ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
The area is linked with the famous painting 'The Haywain'.
Welney was the second reserve created by Sir Peter Scott for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
The first was at Slimbridge in 1946.
Sir Peter Markham Scott was the son of Antarctic explorer Captain Scott who, in his dying letter, urged Peter’s mother to “make the boy interested in natural history”. He was only two years old when his father died
Another potential fieldwork activity idea, particularly for those who are fortunate to teach within easy reach of a beach - particularly one with a reasonable tidal range - is to go beachcombing.
I have copies of a very useful guide to 'Beachcombing' which includes images of what you might expect to find on a typical beach.
There's also a useful guide to the sort of man-made items that you might find on the beach which was created some years ago now by an artist.
I blogged about them here. Not sure they are still available.
This includes plastiglomerate.
WONDER was launched by Jake Fiennes as part of the work of the Holkham Estate.
Image: Holkham Dunes
It's their strategy for sustainability. I've blogged about the Holkham Estate before.
I've also blogged about his book 'Land Healer', which I think is an excellent book - and should be part of a library of books for those teaching GCSE Natural History.
We believe Holkham is remarkable, somewhere more than a million people visit each year to admire and enjoy. It is also a place vulnerable to the effects of climate change, associated sea level rises and risk of flooding. So, our drive to be more sustainable is a very real one.We need to ensure we work towards improving our practices and cherishing our environment for the benefit of future generations. It is by sustainability becoming an instinctive and natural behaviour that we will succeed.
Today's the day that the voting took place for next year's BBC Countryfile calendar.
If you're reading this in time, you can vote for your favourite for the final 12 chosen images.
The theme is "Signs of the Seasons".
Taxonomy is a system of classification of living things.
An early draft subject content document for the GCSE Natural History said that students need to know about this process: to "gain knowledge of classification and taxonomy and enable them to identify plants, animals and fungi found in the UK, both native and alien (non-native, including invasive)."
The proposed subject content (currently up for consultation until early September) says that the specification:
must require students to extend the knowledge of the natural world acquired at key stage 3 of the national curriculum, to gain knowledge of classification and taxonomy and enable them to identify plants, animals and fungi found in the UK, both native and alien (non-native, including invasive).
to know and understand the main groupings and characteristics of each of the following wildlife groupings generally, as well as each of the specified sub-groupings: invertebrates (including insects, arachnids, crustaceans, molluscs, and worms), vertebrates (including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish), flowering and non-flowering plants (including vascular plants, trees, ferns, bryophytes), lichens and fungi. Awarding organisations must select an appropriate number of characteristics to effectively distinguish between each of the groupings.
A BBC Ideas video shares the story of 24 rabbits which were introduced to Australia.
They bred like... rabbits....
More details on the work that went into the making of the film can be seen here.
24 rabbits from Somerset were brought by Thomas Austin in 1859.
The Rabbit Proof Fence had to be built to precent their spread.
A film which was made a few years ago, and is now available to view on YouTube.
Thanks to Steve Brace for sharing a link to a post on the GA's website which shares the main themes of their response to the current consultation of the proposed subject content, which closes on the 4th of September.
Thanks to Michelle Graffagnino for the recommendation to this podcast on the Facebook group.
"As the Season Turns" has two new episodes each month - on the first of each month there is a post from Lia Leendertz, who was mentioned in the previous post.
Later in the month, Alice speaks to someone.
In the August edition she visits Jackie Morris.
Jackie Morris has worked with Robert MacFarlane on a series of projects.
This TES piece includes some elements of the responses to the consultation on the proposed subject content of the new GCSE Natural History...
