TTF and the Big Give's #ChristmasChallenge2022

We’re taking part in the BigGive’s #ChristmasChallenge2022 with an aim to fundraise £4,400. This is what we have been up to and have planned for 2023.

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Teach the Future Wrapped

Teach the Future has been involved in a wide range of activities this past year: from meeting with politicians to reviewing climate-related children's books! Here our some of our highlights with testimonies from our volunteers and staff members about what they have been doing for Teach the Future over the last year:

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Our Climate Education Teach-In in London, which gathered together educators, activists, young people and provided a space to discuss how we should tackle the systemic failures in climate education. As Olivia, 14, a TTF volunteer who gave a speech about the Nottingham Climate Assembly, said, “it's so important to have events like these where we can begin to collaborate and learn how we as individuals and as organizations can best help our planet!” Read more about it here. 

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We launched our Curriculum for a Changing Climate. The first-of-its-kind report reviews the curriculum for key stages 3 and 4 in the English National Curriculum, using a 'tracked changes' methodology to suggest where and how the national curriculum can be amended to include sustainability and respond to the climate and ecological crisis.

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“Over the past year, I've been involved in all sorts on the campaign from comms and content creation to encouraging MPs, schools and supporting organisations to adopt our Tracked Changes report. Recently, I represented Teach the Future at the Climate and Ecology Bill Parliamentary reception in the House of Commons! A fab experience!” - Natasha, 20. 

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Implementing climate education remains our core mission and our passion has only grown stronger. As Adam, 19, says “[Teach the Future] is so important because future generations will have to deal with the climate crisis, so we need to learn about the solutions necessary for that and the impact it will have on all of us”. 

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Teach the Future in the future

Now let’s think ahead to Teach the Future’s plans in 2023. As always we have UK-wide aims as well as nation-specific aims tailored to the different contexts of the nations in Britain. Teach the Future’s approach to implementing climate education is multifaceted, involving political organising, grassroots community events as well as conducting our own research.

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UK-wide plans

We are scaling up our Teach the Teacher project across the UK, which is run with our sister campaign Mock COP. Niamh, 15, who recently ran a Teach the Teach session explained why the Teach the Teacher campaign is so important: “it gives us young people the opportunity to express our concerns and ideas directly to educators! It is positive direct action.”

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We aim to invest in creative methods for our volunteers to be able to express their views artistically, providing an outlet for campaigning whilst allowing for means of relief of climate anxiety. We understand all too well the mental stress of being a young person experiencing a climate emergency. As Zanny, our volunteer coordinator for Wales discussed in her blog “Why Self-Care is an Act of Defiance”, at TTF we refuse to sideline self-care and looking after the mental health of our volunteers is a vital part of activism.

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We aim to engage with OFSTED and apply more pressure to the exam boards so they mainstream climate and ecology in their work. “We are currently going through past exam papers for science and geography GCSEs to find out what proportion of exam questions deal with sustainability, climate change and the environment. This is very important, as the majority of students are taught subjects based around what teacher's predict will come up in exam papers, and so it allows us to evaluate and publicise the significance of climate education within the curriculum,” explains Rosa, 18. 

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Scotland & Wales

We aim to organise events within the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments of the UK to progress policy and provide platforms for young people to network and engage with their elective representatives and with key stakeholders.

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England

We aim to build further support for our Climate Education Bill in England and to try and get it tabled in this parliament and will aim to influence all party manifestos.

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We aim to work with the Department for Education in England to make sure the Climate Action Plans and National Education Nature Park they have committed to are as effective as possible. Natasha explains the importance of political organising: “It feels like we are shining a light on an unavoidable fact that keeps getting pushed aside: our education system is failing us. The leaders of tomorrow must put the climate crisis at the top of their agenda so why is it not embedded across the UK curriculum, teaching them the necessary skills and knowledge today? Times running out. We need climate education now.”

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Northern Ireland

We aim to meet with government representatives in Northern Ireland to push for climate education. Grace, 24, our volunteer coordinator of Northern Ireland notes that, “Teach the Future Northern Ireland is a relatively new branch of the wider campaign, having been established in April 2022. Despite this, we realize that the campaign for climate education in Northern Ireland is crucial. Climate education is not adequate, nor is it a compulsory component of the curriculum. Our young people are ill-prepared for the future. Therefore, we are advocating for the creation of legislation to include climate change and the ecological crisis in all aspects of the curriculum at secondary and tertiary levels.”

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Ultimately, we need help to reach our funding target in the BigGive’s #ChristmasChallenge so we can realise these plans. All online donations via the Big Give are match-funded by the Dormywood Trust so you can make your money go further so please support us by donating here. 

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