Welcome to the January 2023 Learning for Sustainability Scotland e-bulletin.
A Happy New Year to you and yours!
As we begin 2023, there's never been a better time to support and enable transformative learning across the everyday, for everyone. Check out our latest round-up of news, events, resources and opportunities from across Scotland - and beyond - and use them as a platform for discussion, networking and the sharing of knowledge, skills, ideas and values.
Keep sharing your news, resources and courses with us - and we look forward to seeing you at our online AGM and Networking event on the 11th!
Katie Grant
Bulletin Editor
bulletin@lfsscotland.org
Learning for Sustainability Scotland warmly invites you to attend our online AGM and Networking event. This year, we'll be hosting inspirational speakers and celebrating stories on the theme of 'Transformational Change through Learning'.
Published annually, this document ‘sets out the vision and priorities for Scottish education that have been agreed across the system, and the national improvement activity that needs to be undertaken to help deliver those key priorities.’
Learning for Sustainability is an international and national priority in education. In Scotland, the Professional Standards for Teachers are underpinned by Learning for Sustainability as a key cross-cutting theme. Visit the GTC Scotland Learning for Sustainability Hub to explore professional learning, opportunities to connect with other practitioners, resources and professional reading.
The annual EAUC Scotland conference will bring together over 100 attendees from a range of networks, as well as every area of campus life, from the Further and Higher Education sector.
News from LfS Scotland
Update from the Learning for Sustainability Scotland Steering Group
January 2023
Last month we were reminded of the power of water in all its forms. First, there was the freeze. Snow remained even on low ground, crystallising in the cold and decorating long grasses, sparkling like jewels in low morning sun. A robin followed me hopefully, but it was too late for a shrew curled stiff by the path. We filled the bird feeder and the wood stove. One evening, the pressure shifted and dark clouds rolled in. There was heavy rain all night and, by the morning, the burn had burst its banks, water seeping onto flood plains and pooling in hollows. This was persistent weather; moving silt from fields, channelling fiercely down tracks and onto roads, remodelling the lane and threatening homes. The village swung into action, sharing sandbags and messaging about impassable roads.
After the winter solstice, as the light begins to return, we reflect on what we achieved last year and what we need to do in the year ahead; individually and in our communities. Learning for Sustainability Scotland is preparing to connect with you at the online Annual Gathering for members 4-6 pm on11 January 2023. Our theme is Inspiring Transformational Change through Learning for Sustainability. View the programme and register HERE to join this free event and start your year with aspiration and inspiration! We will also announce our new Steering Group for the 2023-2025 term. We had a great evening in December at our in-person Members' gathering; and our warmest thanks goes to our visionary speakers, Rosa Murray and Evie Murray, and to Earth in Common, Leith’s community croft, for hosting us all with food, fire and fiddles.
Nature is powerful, but we humans are polluting land and ocean and destroying flora and fauna. We all know that education is critical for transformative learning; to reconnect people with the natural world, to raise awareness of our personal and collective impacts and to share routes to restoration and regeneration. Despite a year of challenging global events, with some difficult local consequences, we are looking forward to the year ahead. Working across sectors, with all of you, is a humbling and invigorating process. Together, we can remind each other of the wonders of nature and culture, and strengthen our community resilience, but also be a power for change. Wishing you all a healthy, happy and flourishing year ahead!
Rehema White, LfS Scotland Steering Group Chair and University of St Andrews Betsy King, Development Manager, LfS Scotland (betsyking@lfsscotland.org)
Courses, Workshops, Conferences & Webinars
Please check with relevant organisations for up-to-date information
East Ayrshire Council's Learning Outdoors Support Team have a range of professional learning opportunities available for school-based staff; some of which are open to practitioners from beyond the East Ayrshire area.
Scotdec are available to support teachers to discover the principles and language around areas such as Rights, Global Citizenship, the Sustainable Development Goals and Learning for Sustainability, and will share how to embed these as a whole-school initiative.
Join Scotland's Development Education Centres for this online session: jam-packed with practical and fun ways to introduce Global Citizenship themes into your primary classroom.
Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland's course aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to use tools appropriately and safely in Forest Kindergarten and Early Years settings.
The 2023 Pocket Garden Design Competition from Keep Scotland Beautiful is a framework for learning that links design, sustainability and this year’s theme of celebration. Pupils aged 3-18 are invited to design a garden of celebration that shows what they admire, value and appreciate from national legends to local heroes.
Join EAUC to examples of good practice of embedding sustainability in the business curriculum, discuss your own experience of embedding ESD and have the opportunity to reflect on how your curriculum represents the SDGs. This event is part of our 'Realigning Curricula for the Future' series of events, focussing on education for sustainable development in specific subject areas.
Keep Scotland Beautiful is offering free Climate Emergency training for 18-24-year-olds in the Scottish Highlands. This is being delivered as part of the Highland Community Waste Partnership.
Join the Scottish Community Climate Action Network for their Storyteller Collective’s online monthly conversations. Share climate and environmentally-themed stories, write-in sessions, and more.
SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals Applications are open for the UN Global Compact's SDG Innovation Accelerator, a nine-month program that empowers future business leaders to develop and drive innovative solutions through new technologies, initiatives, and business models and deliver on their company’s sustainability objectives.
Youth Demands for Quality Climate Change Education UNESCO's global report shares the knowledge, views, and demands around climate change education from 17,500 young people across the world. Key findings include the news that 70% of the youth surveyed say that they cannot explain climate change or only its broadest principles.
Partnership: Greening Education Partnership This partnership by UNESCO aims to inspire action from countries to empower learners with the skills required for inclusive and sustainable economic development. This is connected to the global network ‘ESD-Net 2030’, which will provide a platform to exchange experiences. This is an emerging initiative and you can express your interest in finding out more here.
WWF’s Learn to Love Nature campaign is full of great resources you can use with learners of all ages to support learning about biodiversity and how ecosystems maintain balance and support life.
This Ted-Ed resource, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, helps you to build a personalised learning library to enhance understanding of how our planet works and what it’s going to take to save it. Track and share your progress, and earn a certificate.
Secondary teachers looking to include global learning and current issues in their lessons can now download these new Issue to Action resources free from the Scotdec website. All activities are mapped to CfE benchmarks and reference relevant Sustainable Development Goals.
RHET are excited to have recently received some funding to produce a suite of food and sustainability learning resources. Before they begin drafting content, they are really keen to hear from secondary teachers and S1 – S4 learners as to the content they would like to see as part of this resource. Please complete and circulate this short survey around your networks to gather some feedback before 27 January.
Manufacturing steel without huge CO2 emissions – to produce green steel – is an important industrial priority and a great challenge. This resource is aimed at secondary school science teachers and explores what steel-makers are doing to find low-carbon and zero-carbon routes to steel production.
Have a listen to the children’s voices soundscape from this term’s Positive Imaginings Creative Climate Education Programme: a heart-warming listen on a cold mid-winter day.
This free digital resource from Highland One World and Scotdec is designed to help support discussions in primary and secondary settings to explore fears and develop greater agency to discuss the Ukraine conflict with their learners.
Developed by The Harmony Project and Reboot the Future, this teaching pack provides everything you need to start exploring Antarctica with primary school learners.
EAUC-Scotland, in collaboration with Wolfram Moebius at the University of Exeter and Jo Allatt from the Sustainability team at UK Research and Innovation, have set up the Slack community "Plane Talk: Reducing travel emissions in academia”. Sign up using the link above.
WWF-UK's free careers programme for UK secondary schools and colleges is designed to equip young people to thrive in a future green economy, regardless of their career path.
This ESD TSN session, facilitated by EAUC Scotland, focused on how we can strengthen ESD across colleges and universities. The session is aimed at teaching staff and senior leaders but may be of interest to anyone in the sector- including non-teaching staff and students. Minutes from the session, individual presentations and resources highlighted in the session can be downloaded from the hyperlink above.
This Padlet of resources and activities from the recent international youth work project (PULSE) that brought together organisations from across Europe to promote collaboration and share good practice around inclusive practice. The padlet provides the best examples from across the project; from games and case studies to current research in youth work.
Improvements to health, tackling child poverty and reaching climate goals are at the heart of this Scottish Government toolkit to support local economies to be fairer, greener, healthier and more resilient.
A collection of links from Education Scotland to online information and resources on the subject of poverty and social justice. Some focus on child poverty and the impact that can have on the children, young people and families. Others give more general information alongside facts and figures.
Applications are invited for Phase 1 of the SCEL Legacy Fund Bursaries 2023; to support individual or small groups of teachers and college lecturers with school and college-based projects.
This jewellery design competition offered by the Craft & Design Department at City of Glasgow College is open to secondary pupils across Scotland. Use your imagination and creativity to design a pendant on the theme of climate change and weather change. Deadline is 03 March.
This new Framework from the Scottish Funding Council will support Scotland’s colleges and universities in leading the way to a just transition to net zero; highlighting the importance of collaborating to create the greatest impact for public investment and strong leadership in developing future opportunities. The Framework sets out the SFC's long-term plan; demonstrating their 'full commitment to responding to the climate emergency and reflecting improved corporate accountability and collective responsibility.'
Tesco Community Grants support thousands of local community projects and good causes across the UK. The scheme is open to all registered charities and not-for-profit organisations, with priority currently being given to projects that provide food and support to young people.
The Global RCE Service Centre at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is pleased to announce the awardees for the RCE Youth Biodiversity Art Challenge. Held in partnership with UNESCO, the challenge was open to anyone aged 35 or younger worldwide.
UNESCO are calling on all young people under 25 years old to share their voices and stories about how they are promoting ESD-related projects and activities. Young advocates for ESD are encouraged to participate in order to have the opportunity to be featured in a UNESCO web story and participate in future ESD events.
Demand for 'green jobs' is increasing in Scotland with existing jobs transforming to reflect Scotland’s just transition to net zero. This report was commissioned by the Implementation Steering Group behind Scotland’s Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan, with the support of Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Government
These two reports first review Scotland’s targets in light of changes to the methodology for estimating emissions since the previous target advice. They then assess Scotland’s progress in emissions reduction, policy plans, and delivery of those plans in the last year.
The profile and visibility of Learning for Sustainability has been enhanced in the 2023 NIF, in line with the findings in Professor Ken Muir's Report, 'Putting learners at the centre: towards a future vision for Scottish education'.In that report, young people emphasised the need for the development of values, attitudes, knowledge and skills to be strengthened in the context of Learning for Sustainability, particularly given the increased profile and relevance of climate change to the current and future generations of children and young people. The 2023 NIF's vision statement has been amended to recognise the need for sustainability to be a core aspect of the learning experience. Read more in our blog piece.
A draft proposal is underway for a Member’s Bill to ensure policy development and implementation by public bodies is in line with principles of sustainable development and wellbeing by introducing a duty for public bodies to promote these principles and establishing a Commissioner for sustainable development and wellbeing. Have your say by clicking on the link above. The consultation runs until 24 March 2023.
The environment and conservation professions are amongst the least diverse in the UK. The RACE Report provides more insight on charities and funders working on environmental and conservation issues, highlighting the need for greater representation in sustainability and climate action.
The Scottish Parliament's Citizens’ Panel on Participation have made recommendations on the question: How can the Scottish Parliament ensure that diverse voices and communities from all parts of Scotland influence our work? Read more about the Panels' recommendations for improving how the Scottish Parliament’s work involves, reflects, and meets the needs of the full range of communities it represents.
This OECD report identifies the types of education policy and practices that can help students build an environmentally sustainable future. The world demands bold action to meet the global goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Education can play a pivotal role in preparing new generations for a greener future. Are students ready to actively address these environmental challenges? And how can education endow students with the knowledge, skills and pro-environmental attitudes they need?
Mock COP is a campaign hosted by SOS-UK, and has grown into a global movement of young people lobbying, and working with, their leaders to implement ambitious policies dedicated to meaningful climate action.
With days spent working at Alladale Wilderness Reserve, on the road and from home, this is an opportunity to help recover native habitats and wildlife. Your days spent at Alladale will involve working alongside the Reserve Manager, developing community outreach and education programmes, and engaging Alladale's guests with the Trust's work. You will also coordinate the Trust's conservation projects in the Highlands, helping to restore healthy ecosystems and native wildlife.
The candidate will support the Sustainability, Health & Wellbeing team, Estates team, and/or the Students Association in delivering cycling projects and activities aimed at getting students and staff to travel by bicycle.
This role will focus primarily on increasing the journal’s long-term sustainability and impact. This includes forging and leveraging partnerships with other organisations, and building the Youth STEM Matters Team’s capacity through skills development and community development, during a time of change within this project.
Applications to join the Youth STEM Matters Team are open to youth globally (aged 14-22, or thereabouts) and you don't need any experience to apply for most of their roles.
The Communications Officer will work across the Partnership to tell the stories of this wild landscape in the making; driving support and engagement, locally, nationally and internationally.
The Future We Want is maths-centred professional learning exploring the role maths can play in understanding and addressing global issues young people care about. The focus is to enable better engagement with BGE and increased participation in maths in the post-compulsory phase.
Experiencing wildlife up close helped steer two young conservationists into roles in a landscape-scale restoration project - and they want the doors to such opportunities thrown wide open. Both Ellie and Christina hope the work they’re doing will inspire others. “Many young people are aware of environmental issues but they’re increasingly disconnected from the natural world,” says Ellie. “Visiting places like the Cairngorms and seeing species and natural systems functioning on a really big scale can provide a spark.” Click on the link to read their story.
Would you like to see your photo here? Every month we feature a photo of the month from one of our members and next month - it could be you!
With over 1,100 people reading our monthly bulletin, it is a wonderful place to let the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) community see all your hard work.
If you have a photo you'd like to feature in 'Photo of the Month' then please email our bulletin editor Katieor check our website for details.
Learning for Sustainability Scotland (LfS Scotland) is Scotland’s UN Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development; headquartered within the University of Edinburgh. The centre is an open network where members and partners come together to undertake collaborative projects, research and advocacy that push forward Learning for Sustainability practice and policy in Scotland. LfS Scotland’s purpose is to harness the full potential of learning to create a flourishing, sustainable world.
Join our pan-sectoral network of individuals and organisations working in and around Learning for Sustainability in Scotland today to take advantage of the many networking & collaboration opportunities open to our members. You'll also receive invites to member-only events. Click on the orange buttonnow to join.
