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.
The Field Studies Council has made a lot of free online courses available. These explore a range of habitats and types of animals. These are two of the focus areas of the proposed subject content which are currently out for consultation until early September.
Some of these would be of potential value for teachers who want to upskill themselves and prepare to potentially teach aspects of natural history with which they are not familiar.
We've been exploring the various skills that teachers who are going to be teaching the new specification. Handling natural history may well be involved there.
Do you want to improve your delivery of data skills? If so, we have got a new event for you.
— RGS-IBG Schools (@RGS_IBGschools) May 3, 2024
Join our upcoming joint CPD with @fieldstudiesc looking at improving your skills, knowledge and confidence in teaching data analysis and statistics. https://t.co/eEFHEvZmZb pic.twitter.com/5WSkm68y3q
Image: Questionnaire, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license.
It's inevitable that those teachers who are going to teach the new (eventually approved) specification will need some training of their own first to ensure that they are ready to feel confident in the classroom. Some of this training will hopefully be provided by the awarding body and be specific to the development of the course, and the assessment.
I hope that this blog and the Facebook group that we created at a similar time will help in developing a community of teachers who will, in turn, share the resources that they have
One place to look for training will be your local Field Studies Council centre.
We are experts in Nature Learning!
— Field Studies Council (@FieldStudiesC) January 3, 2023
Start your learning journey or broaden your knowledge - our courses are delivered at structured levels to progress your learning suited to your needs.#Nature #UKWildlife #Biodiversity
Scroll to the bottom of any page on the Field Studies Council website and you will see a link through to all of the FSC Centres.
GCSE Natural History Supporters are shown here, taken from the original list.
An image is also shown below. This is taken from the OCR Hub.
This list may well change as time passes and the specification goes through development with additional organisations being added to the list as they get involved. One would expect some to get involved in the creation of learning resources, whether through their own Education team or by sponsoring the creation of branded material.
Some of this work may go out to tender and be available for teachers and other organisations to get involved with.
This image is taken from the OCR Hub and the original documentation that was released when the specification was given the approval.
Since then of course, we have cycled through quite a few more Education Secretaries and there has been additional pressure placed on the UK's natural resources.
These are the organisations that could see some benefit of being involved in the new qualification, and who will perhaps be involved in supporting its development in various ways, or think that there would be advantages to young people gaining the knowledge and skills that the new qualification could potentially provide for young people. This could mean a pool of people to draw from to recruit for their future work, and also be advocates for the causes they are leading on.
Representatives have also provided some thoughts in essays here.
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