TEACHING RESOURCES
Training
The General Teaching Council for Scotland and Learning for Sustainability Scotland have teamed up to develop a Learning for Sustainability Hub, which includes a module on Learning for Sustainability.
There are five Development Education Centres (DECs) in Scotland, which offer free, Government-funded training and classroom resources on global citizenship (part of Learning for Sustainability). You can find your nearest one here and sign up to their mailing list to hear about training opportunities as they arise.
Online resources - sustainability
The Global Goals Centre is a comprehensive resource hub on Education for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (commonly referred to as the Global Goals).
The World’s Largest Lesson also has a range of resources on the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
Transform our World has peer-reviewed teaching resources on a range of subjects including sustainability, the climate crisis and human rights.
Scotdec has a number of resources for classroom activities focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
Thoughtbox offers interesting resources on emotional, social and environmental wellbeing.
Mr Minchin is a Scottish teacher with a huge online following with an inspired approach to teaching the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
The British Council’s Connecting Classrooms have some great resources and lesson plans for each of the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
Signposts for Global Citizenship offer a wide range of resources exploring global citizenship.
The Young People’s Trust for the Environment has some wonderful classroom activity and project ideas on Sustainability.
climate crisis
Our Kids Climate have created a short, useful introductory guide to how to talk to children about the climate crisis.
The Highland One World Development Education Centre has a free downloadable Teacher’s Pack about climate change.
The Climate Psychology Alliance and Psychotherapist Jo McAndrews offer guidance on how to deal with young people experiencing anxiety in response to the climate emergency.
The Greenhouse Effect: Role-Playing Game (pp. 8-10)
OUTDOOR LEARNING
Research about its benefits
Getting Out of the Classroom and Into Nature: A Systematic Review of Nature-Specific Outdoor Learning on School Children's Learning and Development - Frontiers in Public Health, 2022
Transforming Outdoor Learning in Schools - University of Plymouth, 2017
The Impact of Outdoor Education and Learning - Learning through Landscapes
Measuring the benefits of time spent outdoors - The Bay Trust, 2015
How outdoor learning and play help children deal with uncertainty - Learning through Landscapes
Teaching Resources
Trees for Life have some wonderful, fun curriculum-linked ‘Nutty Maths’ for all ages.
The RSPB have some great Curriculum-linked resources for outdoor learning, offering an exciting Schools Wild Challenge Award (Bronze, Silver and Gold) for learners too.
Global Dimension have created a 'We are Nature Action Research' pack, which aims to help learners make a positive difference to a green space at school.
Bringing biodiversity back to school grounds is a wonderful video about improving biodiversity on school grounds, featuring a presentation by the Education Officer at Surrey Wildlife Trust. It will give you a range of ideas for what to do and why it’s so important.
This is an independent review of outdoor learning in schools across Scotland with lots of examples of good practice.
PSHE - social enterprise
The Social Enterprise Academy offers fully-funded support to develop school-based, pupil-led social enterprises. Watch these two short primary school case studies and these three short videos to get a full, inspiring picture.
This is quite an ambitious social enterprise but an absolutely fantastic initiative for older pupils – this organisation helps pupils to set up a refill shop (of hand soaps, laundry detergent etc) in their school and run it like a business, linking in with PSHE learning.
OTHER - case studies
Education Scotland has a number of case studies on its website here, in the context of food (see bottom of page), and here (see bottom of page).