#668: GA's response to the consultation on proposed subject content

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.

#646: Field Studies Council Virtual courses

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.

#644: Shooting Times journal article

Via my Google Alert for GCSE Natural History.

It will be inter­est­ing to see what the uptake might be. Will it be mostly teen­agers who already have an interest in nature, want­ing to know more, or new­comers hop­ing for an easy course? There are gen­er­a­tions of fam­il­ies spend­ing little time out­side their imme­di­ate sur­round­ings. From my own exper­i­ence, I am con­cerned to see so many people whose primary con­tact with nature is via tele­vi­sion doc­u­ment­ar­ies, their views on envir­on­mental issues shaped by mis­in­formed presenters and social media influ­en­cers.

Per­haps some of us can fill the gap and offer to help with the field­work aspects of the new course. Field­s­ports are the ori­ginal form of nat­ural his­tory in prac­tice, so per­haps the onus is on us to engage pro­act­ively with local schools rather than moan­ing from afar should the antis take over the nar­rat­ive.

The article quotes someone from the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) - a friend of mine Paula worked for them over 40 years ago... the article asks some of the questions that many others will also be asking.

#639: Consultation response submitted

I've submitted my personal response to the consultation on the GCSE Natural History's proposed subject content. The RGS will be submitting a response - as will the GA and other related organisations.

One of the core aims of the natural history GCSE is for students to acquire deep knowledge of the species and habitats that make up the natural world in the UK, as well as how these species and habitats interact with one another.

The subject content seeks to enable students to gain a profound understanding of the distinct features and uniqueness of the natural world in the UK. Students will learn about the characteristics of the main wildlife groupings, which will enable them to identify species they may see in their natural habitats. This focus on species and habitats – and the specific requirements contained within the proposed subject content – will ensure students gain excellent breadth and depth of knowledge of a range of key elements of the natural world.

Studying human interaction with nature is essential for educating students about fostering a sustainable and responsible relationship with the natural world. This knowledge is crucial for supporting and conserving habitats and species. The content focuses on understanding the effects of a range of human activities on wildlife and habitats, and exploring how different conservation and habitat‑management methods can preserve and enhance biodiversity.

Through development of the subject content, we have heard clearly that fieldwork is integral to the study of natural history. It plays a key role in providing students with practical experience to support the knowledge they have been taught and the skills they would need to take most advantage of their time outdoors. For this reason, we are proposing an ambitious fieldwork requirement of 20 hours, which goes further than other GCSEs, and will allow students to fully consolidate and extend their learning beyond the classroom.

Within this requirement, we have been mindful of potential delivery challenges for schools. We have therefore used the metric of ‘hours’ (which contrasts with metrics used for fieldwork in other subjects, such as GCSE geography) to make clear that the requirement can be structured flexibly across the duration of the course, including during regular timetabled lessons. Specifications must allow schools to choose locations for fieldwork based on their own local contexts and circumstances, as long as students are able to meet specification requirements. While schools may consider locations in their local areas and further afield, we also encourage schools to consider using school grounds as a location for fieldwork study.

The proposed subject content requires students to understand how climate change – both natural processes and human‑accelerated factors – affects habitats, species and ecological relationships. While climate change is not the primary focus of the qualification, students will be able to build on learning in other subjects and apply this knowledge to the study of the natural world, including how species respond to changing environmental conditions.

Some elements of my submission were outlined on a Substack post.

A few points I referred to:

• there’s no mention of GIS and mapping, which is vital for plotting species distributions and habitats and monitoring changes in those over time
• there are 17 elements to the fieldwork suggestions - is this too many, and are all of them realistic in a school context?
• 20 hours of fieldwork sounds like a lot… but it isn’t across the length of the course itself - more fieldwork time is needed
• ecologists and others who work in the field will often use a notebook where observations and other materials are kept - should a field journal (kept across the length of the course) be a possible method of assessment (in the same way as other subjects allow a portfolio of work
• are the chosen habitats and species appropriate, and what will students do with the knowledge they have of identifying particular species?
• how can the subject be made more inclusive in nature?

Kit Marie Rackley has shared their position on this as well.

#635: Getting ready

I mentioned the podcast with Mary Colwell in the previous post.

In this podcast she describes her thoughts on when it should be launched..

I’m absolutely convinced it should be launched when it’s ready to be launched. And much as after this long and rather torturous journey, it looks like now being a reality, I think it would be a great mistake to rush it through. I think what we need to do is get everything right. We need to get really good textbooks written.

We need to get really good support materials out to teachers. I would love to see a whole bank, a sort of library of the country’s greatest naturalists giving lessons on whatever turns up in the syllabus. So you’d have Tim Birkhead talking about seabirds. You know, you’d have the perfect people to teach young people about whatever is in the syllabus.

Now, that’s gonna take time, and that will take time to develop well. I think let’s now take our time, get it right, get schools feeling confident and teachers feeling confident that they’re supported enough to teach it, and then we launch it out onto the world.

If it’s rushed through, it has the danger of being a little bit shoddy, a bit insubstantial. It won’t fire the young people’s imaginations about what natural history is. The biggest problem we have is that most people have forgotten what natural history is. They think it’s about climate change and sustainability. We’ve forgotten that it’s about animals and plants, creatures. It’s about the living world around us and knowing that living world intimately, and that takes time to develop those materials because they’ve been lost. They need to be brought back together again and presented in exciting and enticing ways that make natural history such a relevant subject going forward in their lives.

She goes on to say:

I would love to see a greater connection between natural history, as in the studying the subject, and the connection out to all the other parts of life. All the art, the music, the poetry, the literature, the history, the geography, the mathematics. Everything that we do can be traced back to nature, can be traced back to the forms, the sounds, the sights, and the wonder of the natural world.

And the more that nature is put into this much broader context of the human experience of being a living, breathing mammal in this extraordinary planet, the more we can make our relationship with nature evident everywhere in our drama, in everything that we do, then I think that will just slowly build the awe and wonder, which is what sustains all of life.

Caroline Lucas also describes access to green spaces...

We know that access to green space in England and Wales is hugely unequally spread, and we know that people from lower income backgrounds, people from ethnic backgrounds and so forth, are far less likely to have access to green space.

So it feels to me that we need to do far more to make sure in the development and planning space that we build in access to green space right from the start.

#634: A podcast with Caroline Lucas and Mary Colwell

Shared by the Green Alliance.

After more than a decade of campaigning, a natural history GCSE for England is finally on the table. In this special episode, former MP Caroline Lucas and conservationist Mary Colwell sit down to unpack the government’s new consultation: what it gets right, what it’s missing and what bumblebees have to do with it.

A new Podcast with Mary Colwell.

A transcript is available.

Mary's views on the consultation document:

Yeah, there’s lots to welcome about it actually, and from earlier iterations it’s hugely improved. So it really has shifted, um, the focus back onto studying nature, which is really accessible to you, and I think that is the most important thing. The GCSE has to be grounded in localism. It has to be the nature you see on a day-to-day basis. Now, that might not be puffins and dolphins. It might just be, uh, the worms in your garden, the butterflies, the bees, the street trees, the flowers that grow up in the streets in the springtime. It might be the everyday stuff, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in wonder. And so to put the emphasis back on what people will see every day is really good.

I welcome the sense of wanting to be a naturalist has come through a lot more strongly. But where I’d say it was lacking is in two or three areas. One is in the keeping of field notebooks and jottings and recordings, actually physically committing down on paper or electronically your thoughts, your observations, your data.

That’s not explicitly put in there as part of a requirement for the GCSE, and that is so important. There is not a naturalist who has ever lived that hasn’t kept a notebook. And notebooks are not only places to write numbers down, they’re places where you express that connection that we were talking about earlier, which is so important.

They’re places where your interaction, your relationship, personal relationship with what’s before you is recorded, and that psychological process sets in train a whole lifetime of connection. The other thing that’s missing, I think, is a sense of the shifting baseline. And I think until we understand that some of the greatest losses in UK nature has happened within living memory.

In the last 100 years, we have lost 50% of the mass of wildlife in the UK. Until we know that, we won’t make sense of what’s before us now. And that shifting baseline, that sense of "this is normal". You look out of the window and this is what’s normal because this is what you see, as opposed to if you’d looked out of the window 50 years ago, you’d have seen a very different world.

But we just gradually get used to less. We gradually get used to an impoverished world. And so if they could put in some way of tackling the shifting baseline in a way that younger people could talk to the older generation, it could be members of their family or their community. What was it like here 50 years ago?

Listen to it here...

#632: Cambridge Zoology Museum

As part of the resources which are being developed in due course to go along with the GCSE Natural History specification, we will be suggesting lists of places to visit as part of the wider work of delivering the new course. It will be important to connect students with these places, whether through school, or by encouraging parents to consider taking their children there for enrichment purposes.

As I teach in Cambridgeshire, this would be one place to consider should my current school decide to offer the new GCSE Natural History specification.

It's right here, in Cambridge, the only real giant ground sloth skeleton on display in the UK. These South American herbivores were among the largest mammals to walk the Earth. We're open this weekend, incl. 12 - 4.30pm Bank Holiday Monday, if you fancy a look 😎@CamUnivMuseums pic.twitter.com/WSMU0OlyIY

— Museum of Zoology, Cambridge (@ZoologyMuseum) August 24, 2022

The website is here. 

#631: Our Broken Planet - now up to ten episodes

The Natural History Museum's Our Broken Planet Podcast has been going for over 2 years now. I posted about it when it had just started, so it's worth revisiting to see what topics have been covered in that time.

The most recent episode looked at what action had been taken about climate change.

Surveys show that most of us are really worried about climate change and we want something to be done. But what?

This series, we’ve explored many ways in which nature is changing in response to human activity and the dangers posed to people and planet as a result. In this final episode, Tori and Khalil explore how people are taking action in the face of the planetary emergency. Along the way, you’ll find out:When has activism been effective?
How do scientists feel about climate change?
One thing everyone can do to start making a positive change

Contributors:Dr Erica McAllister - Senior Curator for Diptera and Siphonaptera (flies and fleas) at the Natural History Museum
Professor Tristram Wyatt - Senior research fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research
Alessandra Korap Munduruku - Member of the Munduruku group of Sawré Muybu, an indigenous territory in northern Brazil, and President of the Pariri Indigenous Association
Dr Rim Saab - Social psychology lecturer at the University of Sussex, who specialises in the psychology of political action

#622: Sierian Sumner on eco-literacy

Sierian Sumner has written a useful post for 'The Conversation'.

She works at UCL.

The article makes some useful points about the GCSE Natural History and its draft subject content which is up for consultation.

#613: Merlin app helping conservation efforts

I've mentioned the Merlin ID app before on the blog. It will be a very useful resource for all those teaching the GCSE Natural History.

The Guardian had an article this weekend on the value of the app for identifying species which are threatened.

#601: Nature Discovery Week - 29th June - 3rd July

Nature Discovery Week is going to take place at the end of June.

It's organised through the National Education Nature Park.

#597: More responses to the proposed subject content

I've been keeping an eye on the response to the confirmation that the GCSE Natural History will go ahead, and the publication of proposed subject content for the awarding bodies to work with after a period of consultation.

Steve Backshall was involved in the publicity around the launch and said...

"I’ve spent my life exploring the furthest reaches of the globe – from ocean depths to mountain summits – and the natural world never stops surprising me. That sense of discovery is something every young person deserves to feel, and this GCSE could be the thing that sparks it.

Getting students outside for real fieldwork – studying everything from urban parks to coastal salt marshes – is exactly how you build a genuine connection with nature. That hands-on experience isn’t just brilliant for the soul, it builds the kind of scientific and analytical skills that will serve them well in future life.

We’re asking this generation to confront some of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced – biodiversity loss, climate change, species extinction. This qualification gives them the knowledge and the tools to not just understand those challenges, but to be part of the solution."

It's described in The Manc as a "landmark moment for education".

Elena Lengthorn appeared in the local paper.

Elena Lengthorn, University Lead Mentor for PGCE Geography at the University of Worcester, who has played a key role in shaping the qualification as part of national advisory panels, said: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape a qualification that could transform how young people engage with the natural world.

"This qualification will not only deepen understanding of the natural world but also develop practical and analytical skills that are essential for the fast-growing green economy."

There's also been a welcome from the Wildlife Trusts. Their Head of Health and Education, Dom Higgins is quoted in this piece.

He says:

There is a biodiversity layer that lives in and on the human body, including the gut, skin and airways. We are learning more and more every day that health is linked to surroundings – and so to the ecological health of what's around us. The first thousand days of human life – when the brain and body are most rapidly developing – are crucial.’

Being outdoors in nature stimulates changes in our bodies – the "feel-good" chemicals start to fire – specifically increasing the production of endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin.

There is also that very 'human' factor in terms of triggering memories. Experiencing beauty in nature can trigger a sense of "wonder". This emotional response grounds us in the present moment, making experiences feel more significant and memorable.


He also provides some good examples of how educators can re-connect young people with nature.

‘Listen to and then use children's interests to link to nature. They're into gaming? Ask what they have built in Minecraft or Roblox; bring the conversation round to nature.’

‘They're into football? Ask how they wind down after a match; what's the place like where they play – can they see trees? Ever spent time with them after a match? Try it!’

‘Find the links to what you are teaching that day,’ he says. ‘There are science, maths and stories out there; relive history through the rings in trees, count the bugs and flowers in squares of grass, hear a story and recreate it outside, talk about different religions' views of nature and the importance of caring for it.’

Where possible, a whole-school approach can secure parent and carer permission for local off-site walks, cutting administrative burdens and including families in decision-making and activities, if they are able to.

Higgins concludes: ‘You would be amazed where you can create nature in school grounds where there is none. Get in touch with your local Wildlife Trust to see what can be done.’

#596: Thoughts on the proposed subject content

Last Friday saw the document that we had been waiting for for a long time: proposed subject content for the GCSE Natural History.

I've been looking through it to make a sort of 'to do' list ahead of the next stage of the process and have scribbled all over a copy of the document below - and started collating some comments for the consultation.

There's still a lot of thinking to do.

There are some other perspectives from a Labour MP for example...

This piece from Seirian Summer in Phys.org / The Conversation made some interesting points.

The education system has done little to nurture curiosity and understanding of nature in real life.

They like the ecology aspects:

This curriculum serves the field of ecology pretty well. Students will learn to identify native species found in grasslands, woodlands, urban and marine environments. They will learn about the dynamic relationships between species and the implications of human influence (including climate change) for habitats, ecosystems and species. This helps equip the next generation as effective stewards of the natural world, and it complements other subjects such as biology and geography.

On the idea of plant blindness"

We have become a nature-blind society: "plant blindness" is a term used to describe how we fail to see the most common wildlife (plants) under our noses. We need to relearn the innate ability we all had as toddlers to notice the tiny creatures beneath our feet or the fractal patterns emanating through sunlit leaves.

On the 20 hours of fieldwork that the course requires, they say it's not enough - GCSE PE includes 45 hours of practical time... (which may not take place outside of course).

Twenty hours is an average of 15 minutes a week over a two-year GCSE. Hardly time to step outside, let alone find something that catches your eye, make notes about its appearance and behavior, then find the right identification key to name it. In a time-stressed world, noticing nature—really observing it closely, not just ticking species off a list—offers an excuse to slow down, be mindful and spark your curiosity.

They also mention something that I think should form part of the assessment: a nature journal, with observations, leaves and other related ephemera, sketches, sound recordings, images and drawings and clippings from newspapers and other sources, plus tickets of places visited and events attended.

A short course on nature journalling may be an option for teachers, providing guidance on fieldwork observation, recording and methods used in ecology. There are 17 bullet points in that section of the proposed content.

More to come over the next year...

#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.

#590: Finally!

We have finally got some progress on the next stage of the GCSE Natural History, with a consultation on draft / proposed subject content.

The DfE has shared this on their website.

We have worked with experts and stakeholders to develop proposed subject content for a new GCSE in natural history. The GCSE will allow students to engage with and study specific organisms, including plants or animals and the contexts in which they live, and their complex interactions and dependencies.

It will develop students’ skills of observation, description, recording and analysis, through sustained and structured field study.

Findings from this consultation will be taken into account when finalising the subject content.

Ofqual will consult on assessment arrangements later this year.

We will be taking a look at this over the weekend and sharing some initial thoughts and ideas, and will be responding to the consultation as well.

There are also almost 600 posts on the blog to dig into for resource creation.

Also in the Guardian this piece, featuring Steve Backshall.

Not so sure about the Guardian headline here... the course will hopefully teach a lot more than that...

#542: Natural History GCSE - why offer it?

There was a consultation before the long hiatus in the development of the GCSE Specification which will need to be approved by OFQUAL and go to consultation again.

These were some of the responses to the questionnaire back then...

I wonder whether these have changed in the intervening years...

#512: Curriculum and Assessment Review - final report

The final report of Becky Francis' Curriculum and Assessment Review was published today.

The DfE's official response to the recommendations in that review can be seen here.

It includes this text.

Equipping children and young people to thrive in a rapidly changing world therefore means enabling them to understand and meet the global challenge that climate change presents. We will take the opportunity to enhance the climate education content which is already present in the national curriculum, in the subjects of geography, science and citizenship. We will also include sustainability within the design and technology (D&T) programme of study and sustainable practices within the citizenship primary curriculum. We agree with the Review that key concepts on climate education should be introduced earlier in the curriculum and will ensure that the relevant programmes of study contain this at primary level. 

We also want to go further on this and ensure that more people can engage with and develop respect for the natural world. 

We will therefore consult on the subject content for the natural history GCSE, as confirmed earlier this year. 

The Review noted that changes to curriculum content are only part of the picture and that teaching also has an important part to play through the use of climate-related examples and resources to teach existing curriculum content. The National Education Nature Park, funded by DfE, has a website which hosts free resources and activities for all education phases across a wide range of subjects. These are aligned to the curriculum and quality assured by experts, giving educators trusted information that allows them to teach about sustainability and climate change with confidence, in subjects where climate education is a core part of the curriculum content and in other subjects.

They also make some recommendations for Geography.

This is important as the subject content they will be consulting on has to be markedly different from that of the geography curriculum to avoid duplication.

We agree with the Review that the subject does not need significant change, and we will update and refine the programme of study and GCSE subject content with modest changes, to support pupils and teachers. As recommended, changes will support a better understanding of the disciplinary requirements in the national curriculum and in the GCSE, ensure the content is updated where needed, including in relation to climate education, and clarify and integrate the fieldwork requirements. We will also improve the GCSE subject content to support better progression, deepen understanding and remove unnecessary repetition across topics.

#499: The Boar: a timely piece

Via my Google Alert that I set up for the term 'GCSE Natural History' is a piece in The Boar by Megan Denham.

Founded in 1973, The Boar is the University of Warwick’s award-winning student newspaper and the only student-run print newspaper on campus. 

The paper is run by students, for students and all editorial board and business team positions are voluntary. With a reach of approximately 33,000 students and staff on campus, the newspaper is printed monthly during term time.

It points to a general lack of climate change mentions in the curriculum, which doesn't mean it isn't taught of course. My school doesn't follow the national curriculum along with a great many others...

On the GCSE Natural History as a possible addition, it says:

In an attempt for greater climate inclusion, a new Natural History GCSE is being introduced across the UK – the result of a campaign led by naturalist Mary Colwell. The government says: “The new Natural History qualification will enable young people to explore the world by learning about organisms and environments, environmental and sustainability issues, and gain a deeper knowledge of the natural world around them.”

On the surface, this seems to be a significant step toward integrating more in-depth climate education into secondary schools. On the other hand, the efficacy of the course relies on its uptake by students (although the research by Mental Health UK suggests that there would be many students open to learning more about climate change). The implementation of the course also requires teaching staff able to deliver the content across all UK secondary schools, and, fundamentally, it does not address the UK-wide lack of cross-curricular climate education.

#489: From 'Inside Worthing'

Dinosaurs and the Theory of Evolution? Absolutely

The sort of climate change alarmism that teachers will no doubt be pushing in the Natural History GCSE? Maybe not so much

Matilda Cutting, age 16 - in Inside Worthing pic.twitter.com/qQbCaO3dL2

— Sussex Globe (@SussexGlobe) August 8, 2025

#483: Safari... so good...

One from the Google Alert that I set up for 'GCSE Natural History'.

Intrigued by this story.

Cottar's, Africa's oldest family-run safari company, has launched an innovative five-day educational experience for teenagers, specifically designed around the UK's new Natural History GCSE curriculum. Olivia Palamountain reports

Cottar's Safaris will debut "Tracks for Tomorrow" in October 2025 at its 1920s Camp in Kenya's Olderkesi Conservancy in the Maasai Mara.

Targeting young people aged 14-18 with hands-on conservation learning, the programme represents a unique approach to educational travel, with activities specifically aligned to Natural History GCSE educational goals including observation, field studies, sustainability, and ecosystem awareness. Participants receive a certificate of completion, creating a lasting milestone in their conservation education.

The programme launches as the UK introduces its new Natural History GCSE, creating a timely educational tourism opportunity that bridges classroom learning with real-world conservation experience in one of Africa's most significant wildlife areas.

Intrigued because the curriculum for the new Natural History GCSE isn't yet confirmed, following an earlier draft consultation - which produced something which will inevitably change substantially following other consultation processes.

The trip sounds excellent to be fair... it includes:

Innovative programme elements include wild foraging for edible plants and insects, seedball reforestation projects, and a choice between deep-diving into cheetah conservation or raptor studies with daily updates on 500 monitored nests.

The programme blends traditional Maasai cultural education through "Warrior School" with modern conservation challenges, including sustainability tasks where teens design eco-friendly camps or develop ideas to reduce travel carbon footprints.

However, the price may put it out of the reach of most schools.