Thursday, 28 March 2013

Wildwood against government plans to ban wildlife education in schools


  

Wildwood against government plans to ban wildlife education in schools

In new proposals from Education Secretary Michael Gove references that caring for the environment and wildlife will be dropped from the national curriculum.

Wildwood Trust's Chief Executive, Peter Smith has joined other leading conservationists in making public statements condemning these short sighted proposals.

Wildwood Trust will be calling on its 52,000 members to petition the Government to put wildlife back into the proposed National Curriculum.
Wildwood Trust is the leading provider of Wildlife Education in the South East and where horrified that the proposed new National Curriculum dropped its previous commitment to teach children 'to care for the environment' and discover 'ways in which living things and the environment need protection'.

Peter Smith, Chief Executive of the Canterbury based Wildlife Charity said:

"We have robbed our children of a prosperous future and now our short sighted leaders want to rob them of the knowledge to protect the natural world"

"The UK has spent the last 30 years robbing from the future, both in our economy and environment, this must stop. It is our job to give our children the knowledge to make this world a better place and protect it for future generations. "

"Our children need the tools to understand how to care for nature. I have long been an advocate that our economic and wildlife problems stem from a form of selfish cheating, robbing wealth from future generations. We need a government that is committed to giving knowledge to our children that will stop this theft. Our schools must teach our children how to think for themselves and have the wisdom to understand that if we destroy nature we are robbing from our future selves"

Wildwood is calling on our supporters to make a public demonstration of their concern by signing one of the online petitions calling to get Michael Gove to think again.

Petitions:
· Change.org - Michael Gove: Keep Climate Change in the Curriculum


Notes to Editors

Peter Smith is available for interview contact Tel: 01227 712111 

Wildwood Trust is an award winning charity dedicated to wildlife education, we run a range of exiting education courses aimed at inspiring you minds to learn about their natural heritage.  Educating around 11,000 children and students each year.  For further information: http://www.wildwoodtrust.org/education.html

Changes to the National Curriculum
The new curriculum is shorter than the existing one, and is less detailed.  However the current consultation document has dropped many references to changes in the environment caused by humans, and references to caring for and managing the environment have also been removed.
The Reform of the National Curriculum in England 
The Government launched a review of the National Curriculum in January 2011 with the aim of "ensuring that the aspirations we set for our children match those in the highest-performing education jurisdictions, and giving teachers greater freedom over how to teach".  This consultation under section 96 of the Education Act 2002 is ongoing.


Follow us on Twitter                    Find us on Facebook                 See our latest pictures on Flickr

Tel:  01227 712111www.wildwoodtrust.org
 If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter then sign up on http://www.wildwoodtrust.org/news.htm#events
Wildwood Trust
Herne Common
Herne Bay
Kent
CT6 7LQ
 Registered Charity No 1093702
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment