#591: More coverage of the draft subject content conultation

More coverage of today's announcement in a few other places.

The TES covered the announcement.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “As we move into a world where careers are being increasingly shaped by science, technology and environmental change, it’s crucial young people have the skills for the jobs of tomorrow.

“This new GCSE will help students build a strong understanding of the natural world, alongside the knowledge, skills and hands-on experience to access careers in some of the UK’s fastest growing sectors.”

She added: “With extensive fieldwork built in, the GCSE will also get young people out and about exploring local parks, rivers and more - a critical part of childhood as more and more of our worlds are taken up by screens.”

Dr Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, said there was a “strong demand” from young people for learning more about nature.

He believes the new qualification could help “equip a generation with the knowledge, skills and confidence to create a future in which people and planet thrive”.

Doug Gurr, the director of the Natural History Museum wrote in the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Bridget Phillipson visited the Natural History Museum today to launch the consultation.

We've had a good surge of new members on the GCSE Natural History Facebook group - and are now up over 900 members.

#537: A year of Environmental lunacy

Lovely to see Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke bringing NAEE's Year of Environmental Lunacy blog project to a close with their suggestion of the Murmuring Moon for December.

Some lovely suggestions here for finding out more about this moon, to go with the other contributions through the year.

I was delighted to provide the suggestion for August's Sturgeon Moon to 'replace it' with the Thistledown Moon.

100 000 page views

A nice little milestone for this blog, which I hope has not been produced - and populated with hundreds of ideas to be of potential help to teachers of a new GCSE Specification - for nothing.

The recent Curriculum and Assessment Review did prompt a DfE response that they were looking to move ahead with the GCSE Natural History, although what shape may take remains uncertain. I look forward to seeing what comes next...

#500: Still waiting...

When I started this blog back in January 2023 it looked like we might have a draft specification for the GCSE Natural History fairly quickly... we had had the original draft consultation and OCR were taking up the task of developing some resources and other support materials.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license

A new specification would need all the related documents, including sample assessment materials (SAMS), materials and training for teachers who might be considering teaching the course, a textbook perhaps and support for schools who might decide to go with a new and unknown course, compared with a subject like Geography which was well known and had all the support materials in place already (presumably). 

With the fieldwork that is going to be involved in the new qualification, this was going to need some additional thinking and this may also be one factor influencing schools given the cost of some fieldwork.

The National Education Nature Park has done a lot of work in this area promoting local and school-based work.

Still waiting then... and hoping that the next OCR Consultative Forum meeting may offer some news...  although unfortunately it's been scheduled for a day I can't make.

#345: Passed 25 000 page views

A small milestone, and a number of views which my LivingGeography blog regularly exceeds on a monthly (sometimes weekly) basis, whereas this blog started in January 2023, so is now over 18 months old.

However, to say that it is a blog about a qualification which is still waiting for a consultation before being finally released, and which is running late and subject to political whim, this isn't too bad... and if (when) it is finally approved, we have a very valuable set of resources, books, websites and other materials which will prove helpful for anyone new to teaching GCSE Natural History which will be... (checks notes) everyone teaching GCSE Natural History...