#111: An update from Mary Colwell: watch out for Nature Hubs

A long awaited update, which comes from Mary Colwell.

She describes the delay in the development and signing off of the subject criteria by the Schools Minister Nick Gibb.

"The criteria have now been written by the secret panel (the whole process is secret) and are now submitted and sitting with Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister. Mr Gibb has had them for many months but they have not yet been signed off, there are obviously queries to be answered and there is no time scale given when this will happen. What is certain is that this delay will mean first teaching will now be in 2026, not 2025, as there is so much to do to get schools ready.

It is a complicated business launching a new GCSE, and we know from surveys and communication with schools that there is some concern that teachers feel underconfident about teaching it. Many feel they don’t have the skills, they are worried about resources and are unsure about access to experts and even to wildlife itself."

She rightly says that the National Education Nature Park is part of the plan to make schools into nature reserves.
We are certainly planning to use the school site as a nature reserve.

She goes on to introduce another level of support for teachers who want to teach the new specification.

"Curlew Action sees the need for local, bespoke teacher and pupil training through what we are calling Nature Hubs.

A Nature Hub is a place to go to learn about being a naturalist.

It will offer training in identification skills, fieldwork, field safety, local ecology, and local natural history.

Nature Hubs will, ideally, be all over the country, connecting need with expertise. It is a big and bold idea, and we it needs blended finance to work, but we are working hard to secure it. We are putting time and effort into this as we know nature needs us to act fast."