Latest news with #NationalCurriculum
Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Health
- Sky News AU
Leading educational and developmental psychologist Clare Rowe reveals how schools are causing climate anxiety in kids as young as five
A leading psychologist has revealed how schools have become a major driver of rising rates of anxiety in kids, telling Sky News Australia kids as young as five are being left terrified. A new report by educational and developmental psychologist Clare Rowe claims alarmist content in Australia's National Curriculum is causing an 'epidemic of climate anxiety', with primary-school-aged kids being bombarded with 'emotive' messages about climate change that are not developmentally appropriate. Ms Rowe said mental health experts like her were seeing increasing numbers of children 'gripped by fear' about climate change. 'I have had seven, eight, and nine-year-olds in tears in my office because they do not think they're going to make it to adulthood. They think the older generations have failed them, the government's not listening, and no one cares about them,' she said. The leading psychologist told Sky News host Chris Kenny that while much of the research that exists assumed this was because they are exposed to more extreme weather events, her analysis showed it was due to the lessons about climate change that saturate the curriculum. 'We went and looked at the curriculum in detail. And the fact is, sustainability - aka climate - is what they call a cross-curriculum priority. It's got to be embedded in every single subject from five years old,' Ms Rowe said. 'So in music, they're writing rap songs about climate. In English, they're writing poetry about climate change. It's mandated, so teachers have to teach it across the curriculum. The developmental psychologist said much of the content was very 'emotive', with messages such as 'there is no planet B' and 'the earth is sick'. 'It is no wonder we're spending billions of dollars on mental health that these kids - we're not actually educating them, we're just terrifying them,' she said. Ms Rowe's report argues that it is 'developmentally inappropriate' for primary school-aged kids to be learning about complex issues like climate change. And the leading psychologist said this was resulting in kids coming home and telling their parents they needed to eat less meat and drive their cars less, or else there would be dire consequences. 'The kids I see do believe… that we're in an extinction. And that's just abusive,' she said. Ms Rowe said she was not a scientist and did not take a position on climate change, but that even if the goal was to drive climate change action, the current approach was counterproductive. 'Even if you subscribe to the fact that we're all doomed… we're not actually equipping the next generation to become the brilliant scientists who are going to come up with the adaptations, who are going to solve the problem. Because they're just paralysed,' she said. Ms Rowe argues that in order to reduce the growing prevalence of eco-anxiety, climate change education needs to be delayed until secondary school. But that ideally, the National Curriculum should be rebalanced and sustainability removed as a cross curriculum priority.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Health
- Sky News AU
Alarmist content in Australia's National Curriculum is causing an ‘epidemic of climate anxiety' among kids, report warns
Alarmist content in Australia's National Curriculum is causing an 'epidemic of climate anxiety' that is robbing kids of their childhood, a new report has warned. Kids in all of Australia's states and territories are taught content from the national curriculum from the beginning of primary school, but leading educational and developmental psychologist Clare Rowe argued it is causing 'real damage to the mental health of young Australians'. In a new report on climate anxiety in pre-adolescent children, Ms Rowe argues climate change content being taught to young kids is 'developmentally inappropriate', and should, at the very least, be postponed until secondary school. 'As a clinician, it is alarming to see so many children in my practice who are fearful and feel hopeless due to the climate education they receive at school,' Ms Rowe told In the report, published by the Institute of Public Affairs, Ms Rowe says educational and developmental psychologists like her were seeing more and more patients suffering from 'eco-anxiety' – persistent worry about the future of the planet, often linked to chronic stress, reduced psychological well-being and a sense of helplessness. 'In recent years, I have witnessed an alarming trend: more and more young children entering my clinic, gripped by fear that they will not live to see adulthood. They tell me with absolute certainty that the world is ending, that the government doesn't care and that the adults around them have failed,' she states. 'These are not isolated incidents. My colleagues and I have seen a marked rise in children experiencing anxiety linked to the way climate change is taught in schools.' According to a 2021 study with 10,000 participants across ten countries, 59 per of cent of people aged 16 to 25 were very or extremely worried about climate change. While there is less data about the level of eco-anxiety among primary school aged children, surveys have found that almost a third of Australians aged 10-13 are worried about the state of the environment. Since it was established, the National Curriculum has included 'sustainability' as one of its three cross-curriculum priorities. This means content about the environment and climate change is present in all subjects, ranging from science to English and even maths. The report explains that in order to fulfil their teaching requirements, many schools utilise third-party education resources, some of which are developed by activist groups. 'The framing of these materials often leans towards an urgent and alarmist narrative, often emphasising children's role in taking action against climate change,' the report states. The examples listed include a lesson aimed at nine-year-olds and developed by Scootle which teaches that climate change is 'threatening humankind and pushing people into poverty'. The report also points to a resource developed by ABC's 'Behind the News' program. Aimed at kids aged eight and above, the resource 'educates young children by showing them emotive video footage of raging bushfires, floods, cyclones and melting ice caps'. 'These images are displayed with a backdrop of dramatic music and an overlay of children's testimonies about how worried they are for their future,' the report states. According to Ms Rowe, it is 'developmentally inappropriate' to be teaching primary school-aged children about climate change, since it 'exposes young minds to allegedly existential threats that they cannot meaningfully understand or act upon'. 'Young children lack the cognitive capacity to process abstract, multifactorial problems such as global climate change. Without the necessary reasoning skills, they are prone to misinterpreting information in ways that fuel excessive fear, helplessness, and anxiety,' the report states. 'For example, a child who hears that climate change is a risk to coastal communities, health and food security may internalise these statements literally, believing that complete environmental collapse is imminent within their lifetime. 'This misinterpretation can lead to excessive fear, confusion and distress, rather than constructive engagement with environmental issues.' The developmental psychologist also argued the heightened state of stress this causes can rob kids of their childhood. 'When young brains are routinely pulled into a heightened state of stress, their ability to engage in age-appropriate developmental tasks such as play, exploration and social learning is significantly diminished,' the report states. Ms Rowe argues that in order to reduce the growing prevalence of eco-anxiety, climate change education should at the very least be delayed until secondary school. The leading psychologist is also calling for the National Curriculum to be rebalanced. 'We must also abolish the National Curriculum Cross-Curriculum Priority of Sustainability, which sounds nice, but is causing untold damage,' she told 'Our children should be focused on core competencies of literacy and numeracy in primary education. These are the foundational skills upon which all future learning depends.'
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Majority of young people don't know financial education is on the curriculum
Think back to your school days – how much did you learn about personal finance: mortgages, credit cards and loans? Before 2014, this information didn't form part of the national curriculum, so understandably the answer for many might be that they didn't learn very much. Going back a decade, I was still at school and therefore should have been on the receiving end of some of this education, albeit in its early days. Many of the things I learned at school have stuck with me over the past ten years, most of which don't generally apply to my daily life, be it the science behind the polarisation of light waves or the plots made against Elizabeth I (Ridolfi, Throckmorton, Babington… they still roll off the tongue). What didn't stick with me was anything related to borrowing money, tax or paying into a pension. This is not to say that I didn't learn about these things, I probably did. But I would venture that financial education didn't constitute a significant enough part of my education for me to remember it. Speaking to a few school friends, it seems no one else remembered being taught any of that either. Data from Boon Brokers also indicates that I might not be alone. Some 74 per cent of young people said they didn't know financial literacy was part of the curriculum, according to the study of 1,000 people aged between 18 and 24. As a result, some 83 per cent said school wasn't their main source of financial education, with 39 per cent of them saying their parents provided most of their financial knowledge. Giang Hughes, business support manager at wealth management consultancy firm Simplify Consulting: 'Financial education is an essential life skill. 'While the statistics are shocking, they are not surprising, and change needs to be made to the curriculum so children can become more financially literate as they enter adulthood. 'We already see a huge advice gap that is yet to be reduced in a meaningful way and many reports suggest young adults are seeking advice from unregulated, uninformed and sometimes questionable sources.' The biggest knowledge gap appears to arise around mortgages with 58 per cent saying no facilities were provided at school for them to learn about mortgages. Some 92 per cent said they want mortgages to be taught in schools. 'These figures only highlight the need for formal financial education in schools and collectively we urge the Government to make financial education a compulsory part of every child's school day, regardless of which school they attend,' Hughes adds. I'm a teacher - the financial curriculum needs work Liam Hussey, head of PSHE at Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Cheshire, runs his school's financial literacy programme and doesn't think the National Curriculum goes far enough. He told This is Money: 'Quite often PSHE in schools is a bit of a bolt on, it seems a poisoned chalice that no one wants. My vision when I first presented it to the senior leadership team and the head teacher was that I wanted to rip it up and start again.' That's what he did. 'Coming from a business studies background, [money] was a more important topic to me.' Hussey built a programme for students that could then be adapted by other teachers to suit the needs of their particular class. He said: 'I've developed these materials from scratch, it's taken a lot of time and effort to get those set up and to the standard that they need to be.' Now at Ormiston, students learn about personal finance over six-week blocks, covering everything from mortgages and credit to banking and loan sharks, working through booklets with key definitions and real-life scenarios and tasks such as building a weekly budget. The classes are tailored to specific year groups, with the year 11 teaching block building on year nine and year seven teaching. Hussey said: 'It's a stand alone, dedicated project of at least six weeks where students go in depth with the same member of staff working on the same booklet and coming back to that knowledge week in week out.' And the student response to the programme at Ormiston has been a positive one. Hussey said: 'The engagement from students is something that has been really positive… It's so relevant for them and they respond so well. 'It's quite pleasing to know that they are taking it seriously, they need to understand the value of this part of the curriculum.' Student response surveys at the school show that the money sections of PSHE are often the most favoured by the students. Hussey said: 'Taxation, bills, money, jobs, careers, taxes and mortgages. You can see this is a common theme coming through, the demand is there.' For all the financial education taking place at Ormiston though, other schools aren't hitting the same mark. Hussey said: 'In some cases I've heard the situations where the learning outcomes are just given to staff and they have to develop their own materials, which for me creates a lot of issues about consistency and certainly about quality.' '[Financial Literacy] is not as well implemented as it should be,' he said, Hussey developed Ormiston's financial literacy content himself, spending hours painstakingly putting together lessons that can be adapted by other teachers for their classes. But teachers are already stretched, and most simply don't have time to do the same, especially when financial education is often overlooked. Hussey said: 'To produce those materials yourself takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.' This means that standards vary wildly, and financial education is far from consistent. 'I think we need an awareness of the importance of financial to see and the expectation on schools to deliver,' Hussey added. 'We need a national bank of materials that we can tap into as teachers, so that you can go online, access a lesson on mortgages and decide which parts you want to keep or amend.'
South Wales Argus
25-04-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Tenby's popular Dinosaur Park attraction up for sale
Christie & Co, the specialist leisure property adviser, has been instructed to market the themed visitor attraction The Dinosaur Park. The attraction, which was created and built in Tenby by the current owners in 1994, is on the market for the first time due to the owners' retirement. The Dinosaur Park, which is currently family-owned and operated, is made up of 36 rides and activities, with more than 90 dinosaurs. It also includes a woodland trail and a separate guided walking safari of the animatronic creatures. The park has been owned by the same family since its inception in 1994 (Image: Christie & Co) Other facilities include covered soft and hard play areas, a family fun activity house, a virtual reality activity, café and takeaway eateries, a covered eating area, a reception, and a gift shop. The park attracts more than 60,000 visitors annually, with 650 families holding season tickets. It is a popular choice for family breaks and days out, and also welcomes educational school trips to support lessons about dinosaurs on the National Curriculum. Gabriela Williams, business agent for leisure at Christie & Co, is managing the sale. She said: "The Dinosaur Park is an outstanding visitor attraction, and this is a unique opportunity to own a very profitable, turn-key leisure business. "Over the past 30 years, the owners have built, grown, and developed the park to the successful attraction it is today, and there is still further scope and potential for it to be expanded even further. "We expect the park to appeal to a national buyer audience and are welcoming enquiries from prospective purchasers." The new owner will have the option to either run the park as a lifestyle business or employ an onsite general manager to handle day-to-day operations. There is also the opportunity to purchase 120 acres of additional land surrounding the park, as well as a three-bedroom bungalow. The park offers scope for further expansion. The Dinosaur Park is on the market with a guide price of £4.5 million. The Dinosaur Park is located 2.5 miles from Tenby, a tourism hotspot and popular destination for family breaks and days out. For more information, visit the Christie & Co website.
Western Telegraph
24-04-2025
- Business
- Western Telegraph
Tenby's popular Dinosaur Park attraction remains up for sale
Christie & Co, the specialist leisure property adviser, has been marketing the themed visitor attraction The Dinosaur Park since the start of this year. The attraction, which was created and built in Tenby by the current owners in 1994, is on the market for the first time due to the owners' retirement. The Dinosaur Park, which is currently family-owned and operated, is made up of 36 rides and activities, with more than 90 dinosaurs. It also includes a woodland trail and a separate guided walking safari of the animatronic creatures. The park has been owned by the same family since its inception in 1994 (Image: Christie & Co) Other facilities include covered soft and hard play areas, a family fun activity house, a virtual reality activity, café and takeaway eateries, a covered eating area, a reception, and a gift shop. The park attracts more than 60,000 visitors annually, with 650 families holding season tickets. It is a popular choice for family breaks and days out, and also welcomes educational school trips to support lessons about dinosaurs on the National Curriculum. Gabriela Williams, business agent for leisure at Christie & Co, is managing the sale. She said: "The Dinosaur Park is an outstanding visitor attraction, and this is a unique opportunity to own a very profitable, turn-key leisure business. "Over the past 30 years, the owners have built, grown, and developed the park to the successful attraction it is today, and there is still further scope and potential for it to be expanded even further. "We expect the park to appeal to a national buyer audience and are welcoming enquiries from prospective purchasers." The new owner will have the option to either run the park as a lifestyle business or employ an onsite general manager to handle day-to-day operations. There is also the opportunity to purchase 120 acres of additional land surrounding the park, as well as a three-bedroom bungalow. The park offers scope for further expansion. The Dinosaur Park is on the market with a guide price of £4.5 million. The Dinosaur Park is located 2.5 miles from Tenby, a tourism hotspot and popular destination for family breaks and days out. For more information, visit the Christie & Co website.
