Climate Change training for primary school teachers

[SueFromLondon]

Hi

I'm a university student working on a project to explore creating a training course for primary school teachers with the aim of helping teachers discuss climate-related issues with their pupils and to support them with concerns and/or anxieties that they may have related to climate issues. There is potential to broaden the scope to include information and guidance about ways of increasing sustainably practices within a school environment and in classrooms.

It would be very helpful if you could complete the short questionnaire using Microsoft Forms at the link below to share some of your thoughts on this subject.

https://forms.office.com/e/ArKJBa3zup

Thanks in advance.

You have to be careful when covering political topics in the classroom. There's a fine line between teaching genuine education and pushing political propaganda.

I think concerns and anxieties at primary age are difficult to address beyond the encouragement that we all need to do our best individually with actions such as saving energy and recycling. The science is covered extensively in Sciences and Geography in secondary curriculums, and very few primary teachers are science specialists.

Also I’d be astonished if most primaries could release teachers or fund them for a course like that. Sorry to not be more positive!

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts — it's very helpful.

It's certainly a complex area. The project I'm involved in is seeking to attempt to determine whether there is a need for greater knowledge among teachers, and what that need might be. At this stage, looking primarily at primary level.

Initial discussions among the project team have been around the idea that there seems likely to be some levels of anxiety among some students and that teachers may benefit from techniques and some greater understanding in order to be able to help pupils with these anxieties.

Perhaps also that there is, among many people in general, a lack of clarity over many causes and impacts of climate-related issues. We're keen to explore whether there might be scope for short training (and/or perhaps activity packs) to share activities or information on how to incorporate some element of climate change teaching into existing curriculums/topics. The inspiration is really to help teachers help their pupils in this challenging area.

Thanks again.

Not looked at your survey but I would love to do more on climate change. It has to link clearly to the NC2014 though. There is just no time to deviate from it. Is this something you have properly considered? I don't even wind down for Christmas or Easter now - every single day we are doing lessons that Ofsted would be happy with if they observed.

Thanks for your response. Thinking about how any training, resources, and techniques/activities could be linked with the national curriculum is definitely something that I think is key — and ways of both bringing climate-related learning into other topics in very small, quick, and gentle ways, along with some methods for tackling anxieties which might be felt by some children.

The survey should only take a few minutes; I'd love it if you could fine the time to fill it in.

Thanks,