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We are campaigning for change across the whole of the UK, but education in the UK is a devolved matter, meaning there are different education ministers and education laws in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A lot of our work is relevant across the UK, but we also have specific campaign branches in Scotland, Wales and England:
Teach the Future Scotland
Launched July 2020
What we're up to
Teach the Future Northern Ireland
Launched March 2022
What we're up to
Teach the Future Wales
Launched February 2021
What we're up to
Teach the Future England
Launched October 2019
What we're up to
We have a group of amazing, well-trained spokespeople in various parts of the UK ready for media interviews or speaking at events. Find out more.
We have a team of over 40 young volunteers working on Teach the Future. Fill out our volunteer signup form if you're interested in volunteering for the campaign.
While our campaign previously had thirteen staff members, we are currently being supported by some experienced campaigners from SOS-UK - lending their time and advice a day or two per week - and three students on part time contracts to progress our bill. Previously, we had one young staff member working full time on UK-wide work, three student staff in England, Scotland, and Wales working one day a week and one student staff member working on International outreach one day per week.
Teach the Future is mostly funded by donations from independent foundations as well as individuals. Our finances are looked after by SOS-UK (registered charity 1184011), who commit to only using it for Teach the Future. If you're able to donate, please visit our donations page.
How do I get involved?
There are loads of ways to get involved!
If you’re a student and want to volunteer with us, you can visit our volunteer signup form. If you’re a teacher, you can join our teacher's network. Anyone can support our campaign financially by visiting our donations page, write to their representative in support of climate education, sign our petition or just follow us on social media using the links in this page's footer.
What is the English Climate Emergency Education Bill all about?
The English Climate emergency education bill is the first bill in the UK written by students, and sets an expectation for all education providers to teach about the climate emergency. It would require resources and training to be provided by schools and teachers taking broader social justice objectives. The bill will also require that all buildings used for education become net-zero by 2030. To support our aims we have also released a spending review and a costings for our net zero buildings objective.
It was submitted to Parliament by MP Nadia Whittome as a 10 Minute Rule (Private Members') Bill, and passed its first reading on the 23rd of November, 2021. Its second reading is going to be on the 28th of January, 2022.
There is also a bill specific to Scotland coming soon!
What levels of areas of education do you cover?
We want the climate crisis to be taught through the lens of social justice at all levels, right through from primary to tertiary education including vocational training in colleges.
What are your plans for the future?
We are currently focusing on our bill in Parliament, while Scotland and Wales are developing their own nation specific bills.
As well as this we are working to gain more public support for the campaign and raise the profile of climate education.
We're working with teachers across the UK to understand what the issues in the current system are, and how best to solve them.
What are we campaigning for?
Education in the UK isn’t preparing students to face the effects of climate change or help us understand the causes and solutions, we are looking to change this!
Don’t we already learn about climate change in school?
Unfortunately, the climate crisis is only taught briefly in a couple of optional subjects and we’ve found that often where it is taught, it’s not done to high enough quality.
Only 4% of students feel that they know a lot about the climate crisis and 75% of teachers feel that they haven’t received adequate training to educate students about the climate crisis. You can find more statistics about climate education here.
How are we trying to achieve our asks?
We're working on bills in England, Scotland, and Wales, and building recognition and awareness over social media.
We also have specific policies that we want to see implemented in each nation.
When did Teach the Future start?
Planning for Teach the Future started in the summer of 2019, but things started properly moving in December 2020, since then we’ve grown more and more!
Are there similar campaigns in other countries?
Yes! We will be sharing more details about our international network in the future...