Faced with climactic conditions that are clearly breaking down, and posing an existential threat to humanity’s future (1) the Francis Review did not rise to the level of the challenge of preparing our students to help create a sustainable society and empowering our teachers to enable them to do so, and we will have to go beyond its limitations.

However, it

• introduced Sustainability as one of five key skills/themes, alongside digital, media literacy, oracy, and financial literacy;
• made real and welcome consolidation of climate learning in the subjects that already deal with it in Secondary – Science, Geography, Citizenship – while making Citizenship mandatory at all key stages and giving more scope for age-appropriate thematic learning in Primary;
• introduced an enrichment entitlement which includes access to nature and outdoors;
• and a more inclusive curriculum where all students can ‘see themselves reflected in the curriculum’.

Given that the understanding delivered through Geography and Science will both be needed for a rounded grasp of the issue, students who don’t take both subjects will only have a partial grip on it, and those who take neither will be reliant solely on the relatively slim strand provided by Citizenship. Spreading the issue across the wider curriculum was one of the key demands of SOSUK, which was supported by the education unions. The Review encourages such an approach, but doesn’t mandate it.

Similarly in the “skills agenda” at Tertiary, a welcome push for training people up in key areas needed for the energy transition does not require a foundational climate module in each course; leaving the next generation of skilled workers with a technical grasp of tasks, but not an understanding of why their jobs are not simply “work” but an essential social mission. Making sure that there is such a module is a key task in this sector

This is of a piece with the overall approach in government, that what is required to cope with climate change is a serious technical shift, primarily in energy supply, but no essential social transformation, or shift in values.

Nevertheless, schools are encouraged to go further and have the tools to do so.

• The Ministry of Eco Education– has a shadow curriculum mapped onto the existing NC, which can be adopted as a whole school approach, and provides INSETs to support schools that want to rise to the challenge
• Let’s Go Zero 2030– the national campaign for all schools, colleges and nurseries to be zero carbon. They offer free help from their team of Climate Action Advisors supporting schools all across England to create Climate Action Plans.
• Climate Ambassadors– from local Universities also provide support to develop school climate action plans
• The Green Schools Project – runs intensive interventions in a relatively small number of schools
• The Eco Schools Programme– was the initial vehicle for the plan from the last Labour government for all schools to be sustainable by 2020, before that ambition was tossed aside as “Green crap” by the Cameron government. Administered through Keep Britain Tidy, it provides structured initiatives alongside and enhancing the curriculum throughout the year.

In the absence of management initiative, it is policy for the NEU for union reps to press for schools to get onto this agenda and other unions, including the Heads unions, are positive about this. This pressure can be applied at school, Multi Academy Trust, Diocesan and Local Authority levels.

The Net Zero strategy left over from the last Conservative government is awaiting a “refresh”. A bottom line for this would be to make being part of the National Nature Park mandatory– because at the moment only about a quarter of schools are – to set up a coherent framework for sustainability leads and climate action plans. Any “refresh” that does not set such clear guidelines for this – treating the climate emergency as an emergency – will have to be supplemented by a heave from below by educators and unions.

All of this takes place in a political context in which there is a massive greenlash being promoted by the Fossil Fuel companies and their political agents, most significantly the Trump administration pulling Reform and the Conservatives in its wake, and loudly proclaimed in most of the press – which has already attacked the Review, with headlines like ‘Tough’ subjects could be dropped in schools to make way for ‘renewed focus’ on AI and climate science, curriculum tsar hints’ in the Daily Mail (2) This is combined with attacks on the Review’s inclusivity and refreshing emphasis on the Arts because, as we know, learning isn’t learning if it is creative or, God forbid, enjoyable.

This is where the paradox built into the existing DFE Net Zero Strategy, and accompanying guidelines on Political Impartiality has to be resolved.

The Impartiality Guidance was drawn up at a time in which there was a broad consensus on the need to get to Net Zero by 2050, but an argument about how to do it. It was also in the context of an agreement that climate science was politically accepted as well as true. The DFE guidelines stated that it wasn’t necessary to teach climate denial to provide spurious “balance” because it has no more validity than flat Earthism. But now we have climate denial as the motivating faith of the current US administration’s drive for “Global Energy Dominance” based on doubling down on fossil fuels, we can expect political attacks from their political minions here both for teaching the truth about it and especially for any attempts to extend the learning into our communities. Because when America loses its mind, the parts of the world that it influences, get disoriented. We have to be ready to defend ourselves and demolish such attacks.

1. National Climate and Nature Emergency Briefing https://www.nebriefing.org/
2. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14503217/tough-subjects-becky-francis-curriculum-ai-climate.html

   https://www.ministryofeco.org/

   https://letsgozero.org/

   https://climateambassadors.org.uk/

   https://www.greenschoolsproject.org.uk/

   https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/

   By Paul Atkin

   This is the climate chapter in the new book ‘Reimagining Curriculum and Assessment After the Francis Review’, just published by the Socialist Education Association.