Integrate Nature Teacher Training Programme

Aim: A pioneering Eco-Literacy Teacher Training Programme to enable & inspire all teachers to integrate nature back into the heart of education.

Campaign to help teachers integrate nature back into the heart of education

Who we are

Since 2018 Operation Future Hope has been educating young people in schools about ecological and environmental challenges, enabling students to recognise that urgent action is needed, and inspiring the next generation to get involved with the restoration, regeneration, and rewilding of the natural world - beginning in their own school grounds

Last year we launched our Rewild Britain's Schools campaign, and through the generosity of our supporters we are now able to offer our online Nature and Rewilding Course FREE to state schools across the UK.  

As a result of this, children and young people in participating schools are learning about nature, and creating rewilding plans to sequester carbon and restore biodiversity in their school grounds. 

What we want to do now

Now in our sixth year, we want to accelerate the speed at which we can help young people reconnect with the natural world, by equipping teachers with vital knowledge and understanding about the Planet, the connectivity of the Earth's living systems, and the Climate and Ecological Crises we now face.  We want to create a new online education programme to INTEGRATE NATURE back into the heart of the school curriculum - every subject, every lesson, every day.

Why is this so urgent?

In the last two years of delivering online education to schools, we have identified an urgent need to provide and support teachers, of all subjects, with a foundational understanding of  planetary science, ecology, and the interdependence, interrelatedness and interconnectivity of all life on Earth. We combine this teaching with a pathway for reconnecting and reintegrating students back into relationship with the natural world.  A recent survey, by UK charity SOS, confirms our findings;

70% of teachers report not having any training on any aspect of climate change.

We are all aware of the lack of connection between many young people and the natural world, but this disconnect extends across society, and the majority of teachers today do not have the essential ecological and environmental understanding necessary to help their students learn about the living world, the challenges we face, or the importance of caring for nature.  

We want to change this by equipping teachers with a level of eco-literacy that will inspire, empower and give them the confidence to bring back nature into every lesson they teach - across the entire curriculum.

Photo: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

"70% teachers don't feel adequately equipped to teach their pupils about the climate crisis."  

Research by SOS-UK, 2021

"Britain's children are being failed by schools when it comes to learning about the climate crisis, with the subject often wholly missing from the curriculum, sidelined, or mistaught, students and education experts have said."

The Guardian.

What teachers want

Image Teaching Times.

A survey of 4,680 teachers in England found that two-thirds of secondary school teachers felt climate change was not taught in a meaningful way within their subject, even though nine out of ten said the climate was relevant to their subject area. 

Four in ten teachers said they would like more time and capacity to devote to climate issues, as well as more cross-subject collaboration. SOS.uk

All teachers we interviewed want to learn how to help children cope with eco-anxiety and mental health related problems, and want to promote children's wellbeing. However, most teachers felt ill-equipped to thread teaching about nature and the living world into their lessons.

Imagine this...

• What if we could equip teachers with a foundational understanding about the centrality of nature to all life... 
• What if we could inspire teachers with the wonder of the interconnectivity, interrelatedness and our own interdependence with the Web of Life... 
• What if could show teachers that the solutions to the converging climate, ecological, social, political and economic crisis are all to be found in our reintegrating and living in balance with the rest of nature...
• What if we could show teachers how the wellbeing and mental health of the children they teach can be restored by nature... 
• What if we could equip teachers with the skills and resources to take action to help mitigate against climate change and biodiversity loss by helping children to rewild their own school grounds... 

Imagine how our schools and the lives of children could be transformed.  

All this is possible, but it is not going to come from the top down. This sort of transformation comes from the grass roots up, through organisations like our own, but we cannot do this alone, we need your help.

Children's mental health, the ecological crises and separation from Nature.

There is a direct correlation between children's mental health, their connection to nature and the loss of biodiversity - the current climate and biodiversity crises are negatively impacting the wellbeing of children.

A recent survey of 3000 children, conducted by Save the Children, showed that; 

• 70% of children are worried about the world they will inherit,
• 75% of children want the Government to take stronger action on their behalf, 
• 60% felt that climate change is affecting their generation’s mental health in the UK and,
• 56% believe climate change is causing a deterioration in child mental health globally. 

The state of Nature today

How we will change this

The INTEGRATE NATURE teacher training programme is designed to equip, inspire and empower all teachers to weave nature back into the heart of every lesson, every day.

We will show teachers how it is totally possible to take one thread, one aspect of nature, each and every day, and bring that learning into any subject and every lesson. The cumulative impact of this, we believe, is nothing short of cultural change - educating the next generation how to become a regenerative human presence on the planet.

Furthermore, the INTEGRATE NATURE course will equip teachers to go on to run the Nature and Rewilding Course for Schools, and support our ongoing national campaign to Rewild Britain's Schools enabling and empowering children to take meaningful and measurable action for restoring biodiversity and mitigating against climate change.

How we will use the money we raise

Target raise £12,500

This will enable us to create the educational resources teachers want and need. To produce video lessons and supporting materials for the INTEGRATE NATURE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME, reach out to teachers across the UK and launch our first pilot of the course in September this year.

How you can help us

There are three main ways to help us reach our target and make this project a success:

1. Make a donation. Please don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!  

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Choose one of our great rewards.

Our campaign runs to the 24th May 2024, please help us, help teachers, and help young people and nature by donating today!

www.operationfuturehope.org

Our team

 Lesley Malpas

Lesley is a conservationist, ecologist, the founder of Operation Future Hope, creator of the Nature and Rewilding Apprenticeship Programme and author of The Rewilding Manual for Schools. 

Peter Tait

Peter is an educationalist and historian with a keen interest in conservation and the environment.  Born and educated in New Zealand, Peter is committed to developing a new curriculum with ethics and values at its heart dealing in particular with environmental issues, sustainability and individual and collective responsibility.

Dr. Ruth Sullivan

Ruth graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in Geography and completed her PGCE at Moray House Institute of Education (Edinburgh). She holds a Masters in Population and Health and PhD in Non-communicable Epidemiology, which she gained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Ruth has been Head at Sherborne Girls since September 2018.

Tony Cooke

Tony is a sustainability strategist and social entrepreneur who has worked internationally for over 25 years with leading companies, governments and non-profit organisations to find solutions across a wide variety of sectors including agriculture, education, facilities management, financial services, foodservice, health, media, science and technology.

Find out more about us

Our sponsors and supporters

How we are already helping schools

We provide The Nature and Rewilding Course -  a year long, self-paced, online course that helps young people to become ‘Earth Stewards’ and protectors of the natural world.  

We give guidance, advice and support to students and staff on how to rewild their school grounds through our Rewilding Schools Initiative.

Our Rewilding Manual explores solutions to the current ecological crises and gives practical guidance for starting rewilding at school.