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.
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace."
1 Peter 4:10
Heal the Land is a new film which was showcased at an RGS Summer film night.
From the website:
Heal the Land is a compelling, inspiring and hopeful film about the transformation of a former intensive dairy farm in Somerset into a thriving new place for nature and people.Rewilding Britain is an organisation which is aiming to rewild large parts of the country .
What is rewilding?
Routes is a journal which features articles by students.
Volume 5 Issue 2 is now published, and is a special issue on young rewilders. Check out the articles on the links below. Well done to all those who have contributed to this special issue.
By Oscar Hartman Davies (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Jonathon Turnbull (Durham University)
Essays
By Alfie Wraith (University of Cambridge)
By Jessica Barker-Wren (University College London)
By Haoran Wu (University of Oxford)
By Șeniz Mustafa (The Ealing Beaver Project)
Ben Harris and Eden Sedman (Rewilding Youth)
Trisha Mehta (Royal College of Art School of Design)
Ruoyan Zhu (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Prerena Balu (Newcastle University)
There will be a lot of organisations that schools will look to connect with to make use of their expertise. We will feature some of them on the blog.
Here are some of their projects:
The White Stork Project's live stork nest camera at Knepp went online this week and here's a screenshot from this morning! Observe a beautiful pair of storks in real-time, who have successfully raised young in this nest for the past two years: https://t.co/yryORjGX35 #Knepp pic.twitter.com/OKw0PFuqOi
— Knepp Wilding (@KneppWilding) March 9, 2024
The beaver wetlands at Knepp have come into their own during this rainy spring 🌧️#Rewilding Manager @SaraKingUK recently took these photos that show how much water they're holding, mitigating flooding while creating a diversity of habitats that support a mass of nature. pic.twitter.com/ymC8YOIp27
— Rewilding Britain (@RewildingB) April 5, 2024
The Beaver Trust is a UK based charity.
It's aim is to support the reintroduction of beavers because of the work they do in the landscape to help change the landscape to become more resilient to climate change, and to reduce the flood risk on the rivers they live on due to the dams they build.
They have also produced a short documentary which is described as follows:
A brand new short documentary produced for Beaver Trust, following science communicator Sophie Pavelle on a journey of discovery, as she visits sites around Britain where beavers have been reintroduced. Meeting the extraordinary people behind their story so far, this film explores what a future might look like, with beavers living wild in our landscapes and rivers across Britain.A pair of beavers that were released into the wild have bred for the second timehttps://t.co/R06LL0rZMk
— BBC North West (@BBCNWT) July 18, 2023
It would be worth focussing on beavers.
The Beaver is Europe's largest rodent.
Have you seen them in the wild?
Via my Google Alert for 'GCSE Natural History'.
A feature on Sara King of Rewilding Britain.
Written by Hannah Partos.
Published today in Positive News.
I've previously blogged about the large area of land that is made up of roadside verges and is called 'soft estate'.
Another area of land which is sizeable, but broken up into separate pieces is made up of the land occupied by churchyards, graveyards and cemeteries. There are also crematoria with gardens of remembrance.
The Bishop of Norwich recently called for more churchyards to join the areas which are to be rewilded.
There are already projects targeting churchyards in this way.
The Wildlife Trust has a Living Churchyards project for example.
Some sensitivity is needed about fieldwork in such places, and there is also a small risk linked to the presence of unsafe gravestones.
They can be a useful indicator of age of gravestones linked to the size of the growth in certain lichens, which can also indicate the degree of weathering.
A UCL Weathering resource on gravestones.
The form of weathering observed on gravestones is a product of four interconnected factors and how they vary both spatially and temporally (i.e., in space and time).Image: Snettisham Churchyard, Norfolk - by Alan Parkinson, CC licensed
This is one of the videos that has been shown many times as an example of rewilding and the impact on the wider ecosystem. I remember seeing it being shown at the RGS many years ago.
When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable "trophic cascade" occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers? George Monbiot explains.
Mark your calendars for #WorldRewildingDay on 20 March as we celebrate those turning #HopeIntoAction.
— Rewilding Britain (@RewildingB) March 8, 2024
Discover how you can celebrate this special day and become a part of the rewilding movement 👇https://t.co/4hhRJHBwbi #ThinkBigActWild pic.twitter.com/YaWNdVsXvK
It's today!
This should hopefully be a focus for all schools offering the GCSE Natural History each year.
Happy #WorldRewildingDay! 🌿
— Rewilding Britain (@RewildingB) March 20, 2024
Rewilding…
Lets nature lead
Recreates natural processes
Connects land & sea
Takes climate action by restoring ecosystems
Revives communities & local economies
Builds a future around the living world
Share to spread the word 🔃 #HopeIntoAction pic.twitter.com/AkIU6gMC0l
HealRewilding has an interesting idea to encourage people to sponsor an area for rewilding.
For all the nature lovers 📣@HealRewilding, a non-profit that aims to rewild land across the UK. They use the what3words addresses to allocate a 3m square that someone can then sponsor. Giving that person their very own patch of #rewilding land🌱Watch the video to find out more pic.twitter.com/5MS83g4CcD
— what3words (@what3words) March 3, 2024
You can choose an amount, and then will be told the address of your chosen square.
Wild Ken Hill has been the home of the BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch for the last couple of years, and also the occasional Winterwatch.
Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and the team base themselves here, having previously been based at Minsmere and other locations including the nearby location of Pensthorpe, near Fakenham for a while.
Wild Ken Hill is in North West Norfolk, between King's Lynn and Hunstanton.
Wild Ken Hill is a site of rewilding, conservation, and a working farm. Its land is made up of hilly wood, wetter marshland, pasture landscape, and agricultural fields. As such, the ground is predominantly uneven with thick undergrowth. Ponies, pigs and cattle graze parts of the site and it is home to many, small, wild animals.
I lived in Snettisham for 12 years, and walked over Ken Hill many times, through the woods and down through the reed beds and along the old railway line which was sadly a casualty of Beeching's cuts in the 1960s.
That line, passing through Wolferton, Snettisham and Heacham would make a fantastic route from King's Lynn to the coast. Sadly, there have been some changes and new buildings which mean that the line is unlikely to ever be reinstated despite the fact that it would immediately
The area has changed substantially over the 12 years since I last visited for a good period of time.
Locations such as this may well form a good site for a field visit, or a case study of rewilding should that be a focus for the final draft specification.
To find out more you can follow Dominic Buscall on Twitter. Fun fact, my daughter went to school with members of the Buscall family.
I can imagine the area of the Wash, and surroundings landscapes and land uses, and some of the potential conflicts that occur there would make a good large scale case study.
A cross posting from my Geo Library blog project - what do you mean you haven't visited? There's over 700 books that would be of in...
