Following the Government’s announcement that a new Natural History GCSE will be launched from 2025, Claire Wansbury, Associate Director for Ecology at Atkins, said: “This is a welcome announcement for a number of reasons, as it will embed the significance of climate change and the benefits of our natural world into the education of the next generation.
“Young people can already be seen to embrace the importance of climate change and the environmental impact we make on our planet with great energy and enthusiasm. By launching this new GCSE, they can not only explore that interest, and gain knowledge to help them affect real change, but it could also put them on the right track for a rewarding career in the sector.
“At the same time, I hope this might inspire all secondary schools to also offer triple science GCSE, as the sciences are so important and students may be put off going on to study Physics, Biology or Chemistry without that grounding at GCSE. Knowledge is vital, but there are also an expanding range of careers for these teenagers to look towards and their education should support them in exploring them.
“We are living through real global climate and nature loss emergencies right now and the UN has declared that the 2020s should be the decade of restoration. This move to formally educate future generations and arm them with the skills and knowledge to make change, is a small but important part of that restoration process.”
