We wrote to Prof Becky Francis last week, we've had a response

Last week we wrote to Professor Becky Francis, chair of the Department for Education's recently commissioned Curriculum and Assessment review. We (Global Action Plan) were stressing to her the importance of including a Sustainability Education expert in her Review Group. We've not been the only people making the case on this, which is good, momentum is building.

We received a response from DfE yesterday, it was non-committal - they are being tight-lipped ahead of an announcement. We are, therefore, no closer to knowing whether the Review Group will include a Sustainability Education expert. But we do know that the group has already been set up, though DfE seems to be calling it a 'panel', they told us this:

"Becky has now set up the panel, details of which will be announced shortly."

It seems Professor Francis was at the DfE yesterday, perhaps to finalise the panel with the Secretary of State and to sign off emails like the one we received.

Prof Becky Francis meets Bridget Phillipson at Department for Education on August 14th 2024

We can expect to hear very soon who has accepted an invitation to join the panel. It will be fascinating to see who's been selected, how big the panel is, and how inclusive the DfE are being. The race, age, gender, subject specialism, and socio-economic background of the panellists all really matters.

We're hoping that DfE innovate a little bit too, they could for example give nature a place on the panel, and future generations - i.e. someone who speaks for people who aren't yet born. Let's see.

It will also be interesting to see if any information on how the panel was selected is shared, and whether any sub-groups are announced.

We can expect more detail on the wider Review process in the coming days too. In their reply, DfE told us this:

"the views of experts, parents, teachers and leaders will be pivotal to the recommendations, so that the panel can draw on the wealth of expertise and experience across the sector."

Notice that 'young people' didn't make the list, though we have heard that Stephen Morgan MP (Minister for Early Education) is enthusiastic about young people playing a significant role in the review process. I hope this enthusiasm turns into something well thought out and well executed - if anyone from DfE is reading this, we'd be happy to help.

The question here though is, how pivotal? How pivotal will experts, parents, teachers and leaders (any young people) will be? Partly, that is down to us, we must make our voices heard, and not assume that others will speak for us. We must also be compelling in what we say and how we say it. This is something Global Action Plan is keen to support, especially once the call for evidence is published. Here's what DfE told us about that:

"The Review will start this autumn with a call for evidence, which will set out the areas where the Review Group would particularly welcome evidence and input from the sector and stakeholders and direct the focus of the engagement with the sector over the autumn term."

Once the call for evidence has been published and the focus areas become clear, I suspect that we - as a sustainability education sector - will need to think quite laterally in how we respond. We'll need to submit evidence on how sustainability education is not only good for the planet, but also how it is good for people. For example, we'll need to highlight how sustainability education, in its different forms, can positively impact on student and teacher wellbeing, how it can help boost attendance, how it helps young people to work collaboratively, communicate well, and think critically and systemically.

We will, of course, also need to highlight how sustainability education helps young people to create, gain, and retain vital and accurate knowledge about the world they are growing up in.

Finally, in their reply, the DfE told us they are - probably - going on tour:

"We are likely to run a series of national roadshows as well as taking written and potentially oral evidence from experts and the sector. Further details will be published in due course, and we will be in touch with any additional opportunities for you to participate in this work."

There are, then, a few things to look out for over the coming few days as DfE announce more. If you'd like to support Global Action Plan's efforts to influence the Curriculum and Assessment review, please be in touch. We're currently gathering feedback, thoughts, and ideas on how to be effective advocates for sustainability education over the next 12 months, we'd love to hear from you.