SEEd – Sustainability and Environmental Education 
I worked as an associate supporting SEEd with social media and as a facilitator for a Curriculum Making Online Course.
www.se-ed.org.uk [opens in a new window]
Curriculum making – future proof your students with sustainability
Started January 2014
for ten weeks
Want help implementing the new curriculum? Want to make it motivational and exciting? Want to improve learning outcomes?
This new course will enable you to develop practical and creative ways to implement the new National Curriculum alongside responsibilities for specifying a School Curriculum. There will be a strong focus on sustainability, giving school leaders an opportunity to create an exciting learning experience for all pupils that is both relevant and motivational. Future proof your students.
National Sustainable Schools Conference
10 July 2013, London
Workshop: Linking Geography and Sustainability
Download handout: Linking-Geography-and-Sustainability-references [PDF 1 page A4]
Further documentation is available to workshop attendees in a DropBox folder.
Presentation:
In which geography topic is education for sustainability most significant?
On 23 June 2013 I posted this question on twitter…
“In which of your Y7, 8, 9 units is education for #sustainability most significant? #geographyteacher Thank you”
Colleagues had no difficulty in understanding the question and responded to my crowd-sourced query as follows:
@VictoriaEllis Food
@dukkhaboy we build slowly from y7 to y9 on #sustainability as kids find it hard topic. so y9 most significant.
@GeoBlogs Y7 You are what you eat, Y8 New India, Y9 Fragile Biomes
@GeogJo Y8 climate change and rainforests, Y9 Sustainable London and food
@MPotter21 #sustainability #geographyteacher year 9 units such as water world (based on GA pack). Allows global understanding for issues.
@lpsgeography year 8 units – wasteful world, plus work looking at Dubai
@BenKing01 Yr8 ‘Too Many, Too Few’ – #Population & #Resources
…& students prove deep understanding when given freedom to choose which resource(s) to focus their enquiry on (e.g. #water).
@BrileyRiley Year 7 ecosystems, Year 8 trade and development
@toddogroats Olympics comes close. But sustainability often uncontested concept, especially economic. Often the most difficult to communicate to young students.
@GeogEducator It features most in Y9 for us
@AdamLawson it tends to be a theme in all units. Often towards the end. Perhaps more in year 8 than 7. Year 8 do a cities unit prob that.
@EmmaAbuDhabi We start in Y7 in a tourism unit focused on Kenya & Urban Settlement focused locally, Y8 China energy & Climate change lots!
@TonyCassidy food and climate change
@fantasticChris to be honest, as it’s a cross topic thing it pops in everywhere. Most focus in y9 but explicitly studied from…y7 settlement through y8 brazil, ecosystems through to y9 coast management, globalisation etc. I use it as a major… level 7/8 trait that I expect to see understanding of in any extended piece of work.
@Andyphilipday Features in many but explicit in Y7: Energy supplies Y8 : Offshore wind industry Y9: Sustainable futures for Rainforests.
@unicorn4275 Sustainability is the core theme through all of our KS3 units. Our ‘curriculum wheel’ summary on … link broken.
@CMOGeography I drop into most units. A specific section towards the end of Y9; but introduced at the start of the the first unit in Y7.
I am most grateful for these replies – and you are encouraged to follow these geography teachers on twitter.
The purpose was not to be judgemental and I wasn’t expecting to find an obvious pattern. I believe a probe for ‘significance’ is a reasonable curriculum making question. This enquiry will make a useful contribution to the workshop planned for the National Sustainable Schools Conference.
Any comments and other feedback welcome…