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.

#450: Mary Colwell on the progress towards GCSE Natural History

This is a visual representation of a thread that Mary Colwell recently posted on X (which I try to avoid linking to). She has started to realise what those of us involved in previous curriculum innovation know tends to happen when they come across the desks of those who shape it so that it will fulfil OFQUAL's thinking about what makes them examinable on a large scale. 

The OCR Pilot GCSE Geography was the most innovative examination I ever came across, and had the chance to change things in the longer term. The people developing it were able to keep a great deal of the original conception of the course, but it was cancelled after the original pilot period came to an end. I'm glad I had the chance to teach it at the end of the first half of my teaching career and that my students had the chance to experience it.

When the first thoughts on the new specification and the results of the consultation came out there was a lot of excitement about the potential of the new GCSE Natural History specification: focus on fieldwork, creative aspects including art, photography and literature and training in field practice, as well as a multi-disciplinary approach to wildlife and landscape. 

During the time since it was first announced (see the early posts on the blog for more on this period) the exciting elements have undoubtedly been diluted by the various stages such things go through.

This is what Mary had to say earlier today, providing a few insights into what is emerging from the various stages of development so far which she has perhaps been made aware of - and a long way from the wide-ranging content on the 450 posts on this blog so far, which cover all aspects of natural history.

I haven't seen the original piece, but you can see the first page here.

Two days fieldwork is no more than you get from GCSE Geography - this could easily be more but that is what is examinable. There's no problem (as such) with schools offering more, but if it's not examined or really embedded in the specification's structure it will not happen.

Noticing is really important.

The statement above is a key aspect of the development of the new specification.

Fingers crossed that the next time I go to a GCSE Natural History Forum meeting, we are shown something a little more developed, rigorous and ambitious.

#306: Changing our plastic habits

I have a Google Alert set up for the phrase 'GCSE Natural History'

The qualification will need to make reference to threats to the landscape.

The Manufacturer is a journal for industry.

This article makes reference to one of the suggested content sections in the consultation - whether it makes it to the draft specification is unknown at the moment.

Julian Hoffman's 'Irreplaceable' touches on the plastic threat when he visits the beach in the chapter entitled 'A world within water'.

He describes the discovery of the plastic nurdles which make up a part of any handful of beach sand in most of the world.

A useful quote to use in any use - remove the word plastic, and see whether people can work out what the missing word is...

"For all its unquestionable usefulness for the human race, a convenience that's turned out to be irressistible to us, plastic places an unearthly burden on the rest of the living world."

#300: Talking Natural History

The 300th post on this blog has an update on the progress on the specification.

Earlier this week I spent an interesting day in Cambridge discussing the GCSE Natural History as a member of OCR's Consultative Forum. This is a group of people who share an interest in the new specification and the subject itself, and are drawn from a whole range of backgrounds. We were given a little window on what has happening to prepare the new subject for first teaching...

There were some familiar faces as well as some new friends to meet. We had some good conversations on our table.

We had an update on the context within which the new specification will be appearing - this was similar to the OCR Geography Forum meeting that I'd attended the month before. 

Time is tight to complete all the required steps for accreditation in time to start teaching the specification in 2025, and it may slip into 2026 - the timeline is very compressed from now on.

We couldn't be told too much about the specification as the content was embargoed ahead of a consultation which will hopefully take place this month.... or be opened this month. 

We saw a few likely sections presented as broad headings, which suggest a slight change in emphasis from the original conception of the course, and were also asked to choose which of the potential example habitats which students might be shown that we liked. I can't share any of this at the moment.

When the consultation does finally appear, we will of course be all over it here. We will be recommending to people with any sort of interest in teaching the course that they respond if they want to have any influence on what is (and isn't) included. More on that as it comes...

We were given a flavour of what might be involved, and also discussed some options for an assessment model. This will be crucial to uptake as the subject will need to find its way into crowded option blocks, and the timing for inclusion in these, and allowing for teaching time is tight. I referred to my previous experience with the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography, and the use of different types of assessment as well, including the possibility of a Pre-release booklet.

Image: A La Ronde, Devon - Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#273: 'Kill them all'

A recent suggestion from a Conservative MP Richard Drax didn't really help any effort to be seen as a party which cares about natural history.

He has suggested that we shouldn't just stop with culling badgers... but wipe out as many wild animals as we can.

I am REALLY interested to see what sort of political changes have been made to the original documents and consultation on what should be taught in the new specification. It's been sitting on a desk at the DfE for over a year... let's get on with it now shall we?

#200: OCR Consultative Forum #1

I've had some chance to digest and read through my notes from my attendance at the first GCSE Natural History Consultative Forum. 

I have previously been a member of the OCR Consultative Forum for Geography for some years and always find the meetings valuable.

The first meeting started with introductions to people with a wide range of experience and expertise, broadly in the area of Natural History. Some of them have been involved in various stages of developing the various documents that will ultimately become the subject criteria / draft specification that teachers will work with, along with various publishers.

There were a number of discussions that followed some presentations earlier. One of them was on the National Education Nature Park which I've signed our school up to.

It ended with a few discussions, where the ideas of the forum were gathered on a number of key questions.

Here's one for you to think about.

What support would you need, and what do you think will help overcome some of the natural uncertainty about starting to teach a new specification?

This is the 200th post on this blog. 

I started it as part of my preparation for potentially teaching the new subject when it appears. There are another two hundred posts in draft, and as the 2024 develops it would be good to think that we might see the subject criteria released so that the awarding bodies and publishers can start working on resources. I have a Google Drive folder full of resources, ideas, reports, images and field guides.

I'm going to explore a few habitats during the Christmas break and aim to put together a guide to how they could be used as a focus for student exploration.

As a final aside, it was good to see the progress made on the GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL). This was first announced in 2019, and the pandemic has been blamed for the delay.

The BSL Subject Content was released a few days ago - we need the Natural History GCSE to reach this point next.

The size of the document and nature of the contents may give some indication as to what will emerge, although the nature of the subject is a lot more 'political' and contested and defining elements will be less simple.

#13: Delays in the draft criteria?

An interesting Tweet on Mary Colwell's Twitter feed earlier today suggesting a little frustration that almost a year after being announced there has been very little in the way of announcements on progress towards a draft set of subject criteria for consultation - another step towards the new GCSE which has to happen if it is to become reality.

Here's the New Scientist video from 10 months ago featuring Bear Grylls, one of the supporters of the new qualification.

#6: Join the Facebook Group for those interested in the new specification

In April 2022, Anthony Bennett and I started a new Facebook group for those who might want to follow the development of the new specification and have an interest in teaching the new specification when it first arrived.

We also added a few early polls to see who was joining the group and what subjects they were currently teaching.

Our initial thinking was that most people who were thinking of teaching this new specification may well be geographers in the main, drawn by the connections with landscape, place, literature and wildlife.

At the time of posting, this was the result of the poll - 90% of those interested in teaching the specification are geography teachers. (Take these results with a huge flake of Maldon Sea Salt.)

Join the group to follow any news that emerges regarding the new specification (we have a Google Alert set up.

There will be strict moderation of the group so that all the contents are specifically linked to preparations and thinking around the new specification.