Go Green Week is People & Planet’s annual national week of action on climate change in schools, colleges and universities. It takes place from 6th to 11th February, so here are a selection of resources if you would like to use the event in your classroom:

1) People and Planet – The official site has lots of great ideas and activities. Take a look at the suggestions for themed days and download Action Guides that are filled with resources.

2) Teaching Themes – The Environment – You can also find lots of ideas, resources and activities by looking at our themed page on Teaching Ideas.

3) Climate Chaos – Oxfam have published a set of resources called ‘Climate Chaos’ which are intended for use with children aged 9-11.

4) Twinkl - There is another large collection of eco, recycling and environment resources here.

5) Topic Box – This wonderful site lists lots of interactive tools that teachers can use. Here is their list of ‘environment’ resources.

6) BP – There are lots of interactive resources linked to energy and climate on the BP Young Science Investigators site.

7) Are you Eco Friendly? – Help the Environmental Intelligence Unit with this interactive game from the BBC.

8 ) Teaching Videos – There are a large collection of videos linked to different environmental issues on our Teaching Videos site. There are also lots of examples of ‘environment’ classroom displays on Teaching Photos.

9) Communication4All – There are lots of great display resources on this popular site.

10) RecycleNow – Get involved in recycling activities at your school using the information and activities on this site.

Do you know about any other great environment / climate resources online?

]]> http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2012/02/10-resources-for-go-green-week/feed/ 0 http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2011/06/teaching-news-and-events-11611/ http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2011/06/teaching-news-and-events-11611/#comments Sat, 11 Jun 2011 09:00:25 +0000 markwarner http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/?p=8437

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• A third of secondary pupils in England fail to reach their potential in maths and a quarter are making insufficient progress in English, figures show.
• Children from poorer homes could be denied the chance to go on school trips to outdoor education centres because of spending cuts.
• Union bosses are urging Scotland’s largest education authority to clarify its call for all probationer teachers to be put on half pay.
• The BBC has learnt that 314 teachers are being made redundant from schools in Northern Ireland this summer.
• Private schools have a “moral purpose” to help poor pupils whose parents cannot afford the fees, according to Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister.
• This report from the Guardian investigates the increasing use of video surveillance in schools.
• Half of parents are risking fines by taking their children on cheap holidays during term time, research suggests.

Exams:

• Up to a third of children are effectively going backwards in the three-Rs at secondary school, new figures suggest.
• Pupils are being awarded top grades on “weak” vocational courses that leave them with a poor grasp of business, according to Ofsted.
• England’s exams watchdog is investigating a total of six mistakes in exams taken by tens of thousands of students.

Universities and Colleges:

• David Cameron has been meeting university leaders in Whitehall to discuss the coalition’s blueprint for higher education.
• A private college in England aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge is being launched by leading academics.
• Up to ten universities are in financial difficulty and risk failing as a result of the introduction of £9,000 tuition fees, the head of the Public Accounts Committee said.
• A bin that photographs rubbish is shaming Newcastle students into recycling.

Other News:

• Ofsted have launched a consultation on its proposals for inspection of adoption and fostering agencies.
• Businesses in London have been asked to donate £3m to improve child numeracy and literacy skills in the capital.
• Private services company Capita stands to make tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money from the Coalition’s expansion of the academy programme, it has been claimed.
• Ministers “misinterpreted” research they cited to justify axing education grants for low-income English 16-19 year olds, the study’s author has said.
• A report into the sexualisation of children is proposing a new cinema style system which would prevent young children having access to the most explicit music videos.
• Sukanya Roy, a 14-year-old girl from Pennsylvania, has won the 2011 US National Spelling Bee by spelling the word ‘cymotrichous’.
• The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson is Britain’s new Children’s Laureate, it has been announced.

Due to other commitments with my teaching and my many other Teaching Websites, I am struggling to keep Teaching Events updated at the moment. As I result, I am working on a new, much simpler system, so Teaching Events will be offline for a short time. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Support Your School are currently running a competition which gives children a chance to show off their skills and design a character to be brought to life on their website, recycling bags and boxes.

As well as having their design featured as part of ‘Support Your School’s recycling scheme, the winning designer will win an Apple iPad while their school will win £1000 to be put towards their school’s art & design budget.

To take part, schools must be registered with the recycling scheme and teachers or parents need to register their interest here.

Find out more about the competition here.

Terracycle have started a new programme for schools where all money raised through it goes to the school. It also teaches children about social responsibility and encourages them to think about their own impact on the environment.

The programme is simple: a teacher (or a parent) registers their child’s school online and the school is sent a funky collection box with some posters and flyers. Children then drop all used pens, markers or mechanical pencils in the box, and when it is filled, the parent or teacher prints off a free Royal Mail label and ships it to Terracycle free of charge.

For each writing instrument collected, Terracycle donates 2p to the school, and another box is sent so the collection doesn’t need to stop. With the collected pens and markers, they create new eco-friendly products which range from desk organisers, to rubbish bins and even clocks. Sign up to get started!

Support Your School is a new recycling scheme whereby schools across the UK can raise funds for their school by recycling used inkjet cartridges and unwanted mobile phones. The scheme is completely free for schools to join and participate in, and at a time of under funding for lots of organisations, gives schools a new, ethical way to fundraise.

www.supportyourschool.co.uk

The scheme also helps teachers and schools supporters with a fully integrated website where you can download support materials and manage your accounts in as easy and transparent way as possible. They have a special platform for 6-11 year olds called the RecyKids Area, where young people can learn about recycling and take part in activities that help educate them about the importance of being eco friendly.

Sophie Hadden at WRAP has sent the following information about free recycling resources for secondary teachers (although the site mentioned also has material for primary schools too):

“From this term, teachers will have new online resources to teach the benefits of recycling. The resources have been developed by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), with advice and support from the recycling industry and classroom teachers.

The resources use recycling as a theme to deliver some of the core concepts of the Key Stage 3 Citizenship curriculum, helping students to play an active role as citizens in their community.

The teaching materials include a series of innovative lesson plans, assembly resources and an extended school project to show pupils how they can make a difference by recycling more.

The resources have been tested by teachers and are designed to be interactive, relevant and engaging for pupils, while helping teachers deliver against the national curriculum. Each lesson uses video, featuring teenagers Charlie and Joel, to introduce ideas, raise questions and set challenges, and is built around one or more core activities, like role play, card sequencing, or student opinion lines. The lessons focus on the following areas:

• lesson one looks at students’ current attitudes, behaviour and understanding of recycling;
• lesson two explores the consequences of students’ decisions to recycle or bin their rubbish;
• lesson three includes an interview Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, and uses role-play to help students think about the role of government, businesses and consumers in recycling more; and
• lesson four helps students to think about actions they can take in their own lives to recycle more, and leads into a whole school project.

All the resources can be downloaded for free from www.recyclenow.com/schools, where teachers can also access a range of information and advice on recycling at school and learn more about what’s working well in other schools.”