Page 7 - Copy of Climate Change and Sustainability Education report

2. CRITICAL RESOURCE GAP

ALN settings need CCSE resources made available to them that specifically address their
learners. Due to the lack of available and appropriate resources and the requirements of
the new curriculum, teachers are experiencing increasing pressure to create resources
themselves. However, teachers have reported a lack of knowledge around climate change
and sustainability, as well as a lack of preparation time. This lack of confidence and ability
leads to teachers abandoning ideas for activities they think would benefit their learners.

Even if teachers can find or develop a

resource themselves then they may not be
able to use it with multiple cohorts as each " I was trying to figure out how I
cohort of students in an ALN setting varies would do it [make an activity
widely in their physical and mental ability. on coal mines] … I just didn't do
This cycle of never feeling prepared to it; it just didn’t exist."
teach effective CCSE may lead to feelings
of guilt, burnout and fatigue (see Section 7
“Risk of Inaction”).

Further pressure upon lesson preparation comes from the requirement to differentiate
within a cohort of students, as even within one cohort learners will have a range of mental
and physical needs.

There is currently a disconnect in ALN resources addressing the age of learners and the
progression step they are working at. Resources are either aimed at levels too high for
learners compared to their age, or are on a topic that is not relevant or interesting for them
but academically at their level. Therefore, resources need to be tailored to meet the
learners’ age and progression step (or pre-progression step and routes for learning level)
that the learners are at. ALN teachers spend a lot of time disguising the academic level that

their learners are working at by cutting off or concealing any original resource labelling. If
teaching staff didn’t do this, their learners could feel upset and become emotionally
dysregulated, leading to a lack of work. Teachers need resources that do not assign an age,
but an ability to them, taking out the awkwardness of a 16 year old working at a 5 year old’s
level for example.

There is a particular lack of resources and support
for ALN settings teaching primary age learners.
Currently, examples of CCSE shared with early
years primary teachers are based on best practice
for learners working at higher progression steps.
Teachers of primary-age ALN learners are put off
engaging with CCSE and the Eco-Schools

programme because they perceive that their
learners cannot grasp the concepts of climate
change and sustainability. Providing resources
tailored for ALN pre-progression step and routes for
learning will provide teachers the opportunity to
engage primary-age learners with CCSE.

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