The Life Geographic: A somewhat self-absorbed personal and professional development blog of an ex-Geography high-school teacher…
A new Natural History GCSE qualification for high school students in England could be more than another exam about nature. Here’s why I’m advocating for fieldwork, notebooks, inclusive access, climate literacy as safeguarding, and school climate action plans at the heart of the new qualification.
Despite best efforts, England's new Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance does not name climate change. But a climate-literate Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) can still notice when climate is changing the safeguarding context. This article comes with a free KCSIE 2026-aligned INSET resource for schools: slides, DSL guidance and staff handout.
The first letter in this series was written in frustration — in response to a school communication that seemed to confuse the effects of heat with the effects of relaxed uniform. This one comes from a different place. During the same spell of extreme weather, another school made the difficult decision to cancel an outdoor trip and postpone a community event during a red heat-health alert. For one parent, it stood out as an example of calm, child-centred leadership under pressure. What follows is a lightly anonymised version of the note they wrote in response.
A school in England, facing a run of very hot days and a national heat alert, wrote to parents to set out its expectations. There were some adjustments - small ones - but the overall message was clear: standards would hold, routines would remain, and any loosening of uniform would need to be carefully controlled. There was also an implication, lightly but unmistakably put, that where uniform had been relaxed in the past, behaviour had slipped. For one parent reading it, that last point stuck. So they wrote back....
Evidence, professional reasoning, and how educators can respond to the consultation. A poetry piece with imagery to raise awareness of the absence of climate change in the government's proposed updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). Playing on how the acroymn sounds like the name 'Casey'. Performed at the Geographical Association 2026 Conference Teachmeet in Sheffield. Watch the performance, absorb the words, read the rationale, and respond to the govenment consultation before 22nd April 2026. And if that deadline has passed, whatever comes of the consultation, we must all pledge to ensure our safeguarding policies are 'climate literate'. This blog article is a narrative version containing recommended consultation responses.
Reflecting on an exhausting experience responding to the KCSIE 2026 consultation, emphasising the need for safeguarding reform. Key concerns include the treatment of "gender-questioning" students and the omission of climate-related issues.
The final part of the "This isn't activism, it's duty of care". Here I propose five 'reasonable responsibilties' of educators regarding climate change and its impact on children. By combining the three reports explored, we recognise children's emotional connections to nature, school systems' contributions to environmental issues, and officially recognised ecological risks. Rather than advocating for heroic actions, I call for acknowledgment of climate-related concerns, careful language, and institutional honesty. The aim is to cultivate climate literacy without placing undue burden on students, grounding responsibilities in shared, reasonable actions rather than individual blame.
Part 4 of the "This isn’t activism, it’s duty of care" series. Recent reports highlight the intersection of climate change, education, and responsibility, specifically the UK government's National Security Assessment on biodiversity loss. This internal document emphasises foreseeable risks to food, water, health, and economic stability. It calls for awareness and preparation rather than prescriptive measures, advocating for ecological risk acknowledgment in education. Thus, climate literacy should focus on safeguarding rather than activism, fostering resilience and understanding amid uncertainty.
Part 3 of the "This Isn't Activism: It's a Duty of Care" series discusses the findings of the Count Your Carbon 2026 report, which analyses carbon emissions from over 1,600 schools in England. It reveals that structural decisions, such as transportation and food sourcing, significantly contribute to school emissions, often beyond children’s control. I emphasise that framing climate responsibility on students is misleading and may lead to emotional burdens, and so there is a need for institutional honesty and alignment of actions with the realities of carbon impact to support safeguarding rather than shifting blame onto young people.
Part 2 of the "This Isn't Activism: It's a Duty of Care" series on climate education. I look at the importance of understanding children's experiences and relationships with nature as revealed in the Children’s People and Nature Survey for England, highlighting that most children feel happy in nature, but access to it is uneven, influenced by factors like income and ethnicity. Safeguarding frameworks need to account for these inequalities, as children’s emotional connections to nature exist before climate-related concerns. Educators should approach these topics with care, awareness, and honesty rather than avoidance or panic.