National Association for Environmental Education (UK) naee.org.uk
NAEE Annual Report 2025
This report covers the work of NAEE from August 2024 to July 2025. It is a statement of key developments and issues faced and includes the 2024/25 income/expenditure statement. The version of this report that is approved at the 2025 AGM will be sent to the Charity Commission as our formal report for the year.
Policy developments relevant to environmental education: a brief overview
Perhaps the most significant education story in England over the reporting year has been the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR), chaired by Professor Becky Francis. The recently published final report, Building a world-class curriculum for all , includes some important headlines from NAEE’s perspective:
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Climate change and sustainability education (CSSE) has a more prominent role within Citizenship, Geography and Science at both primary and secondary level
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Sustainability features strongly in Design and Technology
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Recommended enrichment activities include a focus on helping young people better understand their local community context.
While all this is to celebrated, there are also areas of concern, which include:
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The lack of recognition of the role of other subjects in CSSE
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The only mention of 'outdoor activities' is in relation to Physical Education
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Issues such as climate justice and action-oriented learning are not well represented
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Environmental education is not mentioned at all.
The Government response to the CAR report includes a promise that schools will offer enrichment activities, one of which will be Nature, outdoor and adventure . The response mentions that benchmarks to guide Ofsted in inspecting this provision will need to be developed, something that NAEE could be well-placed to support.
Work has continued on revising the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, which is now due to be published in the Spring of 2026. NAEE Trustees Justin Dillon and Paul Vare both serve on the Academic Insight Working Group that advises the Department on this work. Meanwhile, Keep Scotland Beautiful, where NAEE Trustee, Andrea Gabriel works, has contend to support Scotland’s Learning for Sustainability framework through its multifaceted climate action for schools programme.
Another major event to occur just outside of our reporting year but of potential future significance, is the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) climate talks in Belém, Brazil, attended by NAEE Trustee, Quinn Runkle, on behalf of SOS-UK. Ministers of Education met at
COP 30 for the Annual Greening Education Partnership Meeting where, among other things, the draft PISA Climate Literacy Framework was launched. This framework defines essential knowledge, skills and at udes that students should develop to contribute to climate goals. The intention is to measure climate literacy among 15-year-olds from 2029. If widely adopted, the framework would have implications for national education planners with a potential role for national organisations such as NAEE.
Financial position
The financial statement for 2024/25 (see pp.6-7) shows that our income remains steady while expenditure has decreased as more of our funded collaborative projects draw to a close. This trend is likely to continue as we work towards a balance between income and expenditure, something which is being aided by some unexpected donations including £10,000 from the will of Miss Caroline Jane Shaw that will feature in next year’s accounts.
| 2023/24 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Expenditure | Income | Expenditure |
| £12,341.03 | £21,234.97 | £12,956.03 | £16,334.12 |
Again, over 90% of expenditure went directly on the delivery of our charitable objectives: bursaries, publications, networking, communications, and the website.
As always, we note that the figure for income does not include the incalculable, in-kind contribution from members and volunteers to the operation of the Association for which we our sincerely grateful.
Keen observers of our annual report will notice that there is no auditor’s letter this year, this is because, according to Charities Audit Regulations, NAEE does not need to have the accounts reviewed by an auditor as our income is below the threshold of £25,000. As ever, full details of the Association’s accounts are available in our annual return to the Charity Commission which can be found on the Charity Commission’s website.
The Kenrick bursary programme
Schools and young people in the West Midlands (more specifically Birmingham, Coventry and Sandwell) have continued to benefit from ‘Kenrick days’ with funding to support trips to local environmental education centres. The total grant money for 2024/25 was £6,800. The number of applications dipped this year, this is likely to be due to increased costs, particularly for transport, which have served to reduce the relative value of the grants. Applications continue to be of high quality and are awarded against five criteria:
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clearly defined environmental education outcomes
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proposed follow up activity ideally with whole-school benefits
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links to the curriculum
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mention of key words such as environment, climate change, biodiversity
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data on the school including location, demographics, percentage registered for free school meals and pupil premium, access (or not) to greenspace.
Over the thirteen years that the scheme has been in operation 198 bursaries have been awarded. Some schools have been awarded a second grant so in fact 147 different schools have benefitted from the scheme (total value £66,660.30). Since the autumn of 2024 only three environmental education centres have been used as the RSPB was unable to continue to offer centre led sessions. Kenrick grants are used specifically for visits to centres that offer environmental education experiences led by experienced educators employed by the centre.
Funded projects
Two funded projects have drawn to a close this year: the Ofsted-style Research Project (with authors from the University of Oxford) and The Standing Conference on the Arts, Education and the Environment, 2023 - 2025 (The Big Brum Theatre Company).
The first of these culminated in the publication of Engaging the Next Generaton: The state of environmental, sustainability and climate education in UK schools and effective practice in the classroom. The report draws on a comprehensive review of academic and grey literature, as well as relevant case studies to explore effective practices in delivering environmental, sustainability and climate education in schools across the United Kingdom. It identifies key factors that contribute to high-quality educational experiences for young people in the UK.
The latter project has recently submitted a final report which highlights how the project has succeeded in refreshing and invigorating interest in NAEE’s work beyond its traditional base, especially in engaging specialist arts educators and community organisations in the West Midlands. The project also served as a source of new material for NAEE blogs with potential to continue to offer new and interesting material for the website and journal.
A Year of Environmental Lunacy
This year saw the launch of our Environmental Lunacy project. The brainchild of Trustee Paula Owens, the project is all about noticing our natural world more carefully, prompted by the phases and monthly cycles of the moon. Each new moon has been marked by a new blog from a writer who has been invited to rename the moon based on whatever they have noticed in their environment at the time. As Paula explains, it has been, “a very successful year of wonderful Blogs” and Paula is now in discussion with Journal co-editor, Elsa Lee, about combining the Blogs into a coherent learning resource.
Communications
Last year our former Chair of Trustees, Bill Scott, also retired as editor of our weekly newsletter. A call for someone to take on this role was met by two very able volunteers, Anya
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Pawlick, a final year student at Leeds University (now graduated) and Tessa Willey who is Deputy Primary PGCE Programme Lead at UCL and Chair of the Primary Geography Journal Editorial Board. Between them they have revamped the newsletter into a full-colour, informative update on happenings, initiatives and opportunities in the field of environmental, sustainability and climate change-related education. Now published in Sway format (also available in PDF), the newsletter has become a fortnightly publication. We would like to thank Tessa and Anya for their energy and dedication throughout the year.
Our thanks also go to the editorial team of our journal, Environmental Education for helping to maintain NAEE’s unbroken record of journal publications since 1971. Over the past year the team has published three volumes:
Vol 135 (Autumn 2024) entitled ‘Wild Skies’ has a focus on flight
Vol 136 (Winter 2024) is a special Scotland Issue
Vol 137 (Summer 2025) has a curriculum focus
Enhancing the visibility of NAEE
The visibility of the organisation has been raised by various means over the year:
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Our NAEE Fellows, in particular Poppy Flint and Elena Lengthorn, have kept us informed of how they have helped to raise awareness of the organisation through their activities
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Thanks to the involvement of NAEE president, Justin Dillon, in UCL’s document, Key contributons of subjects to climate change and nature educaton , the NAEE logo has been added as a collaborating organisation in this important publication.
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A sub-group of UCET (The Universities Council for the Education of Teachers) led by NAEE Chair of Trustees, Paul Vare, has conduced a survey of teacher education institutions in relation to sustainability and climate change education. The findings will be complemented by a blog and a special issue of the NAEE journal (in the pipeline for January 2026) that will feature case studies from numerous institutions
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During this year it was decided to close the NAEE account on X as trustees felt that platform no longer reflected the values of the organisation. Our social media account operator, Henricus Peters now posts NAEE news on BlueSky .
Trustee news
The Board held four meetings in 2024/25 all held via Zoom. As well as receiving reports on the various activities listed above a review and updating various statutory policies including the risk register, substantive issues discussed over the year have included the need to raise funds for specific projects and plans to update the website. Progress in these areas has proved challenging due to time constraints given that trustees are generally in employment elsewhere.
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Two changes to our constitution have been recommended by the trustees; these are to be discussed at our AGM:
1. The roles of Executive Director and Deputy Director should simply attend trustee meetings rather than being considered ex-officio trustees (they may still choose to be trustees if they wish)
This means that the executive roles do not have to be renewed every three years, although their trustee role would if they were elected. This has the added advantage of allowing executive staff to be remunerated if they do raise money for projects without risking perceived conflicts of interest.
2. The President would serve for four rather than three years (renewable once).
This allows greater continuity in a role that is, after all a permanent position in many charities.
In other news, five trustees are due for re-election as highlighted in the table below:
| Trustee | Positon | Elected | Period ends | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justn Dillon | President (2nd1st term) | AGM 2021 | AGM 2025 | |
| David Dixon | Elected | AGM 2022 | AGM 2025 | |
| Andrea Gabriel | Elected | AGM 2023 | AGM 2026 | |
| Sheila Gundry | Elected | AGM 2022 | AGM 2025 | |
| Nina Hatch | Ex-ofcio (Executve Director) | AGM 2022 | AGM 2025 | |
| Paula Owens | Elected (2ndterm) | AGM 2023 | AGM 2026 | |
| Quinn Runkle | Elected | AGM 2023 | AGM 2026 | |
| Paul Vare | Elected (Chair) | AGM 2022 | AGM 2025 | |
| Ofcer | Positon | Elected | Period ends | |
| Nina Hatch | Executve Director | AGM 2022 | AGM 2025 | |
| Sue Shanks | Treasurer (2ndterm) | AGM 2023 | AGM 2026 |
Regrettably, Lee Jowett has had to resign as a trustee due to pressures of work and other commitments. Lee had been a highly effective trustee, particularly in taking the lead on renewing our digital infrastructure. The trustees are extremely grateful to Lee for his valued and professional help.
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Income Expenditure Statement 2024/2025
Income
| Income | |
|---|---|
| M & G Dividends Membership Donations Royalties Interest Consultancy Total Income Expenditure Kenrick School Bursaries Payments Kenrick School Bursary Support Professional Office Support Journal Editing Fees Journal Printing Journal Distribution by Post Microsoft Business Standard Subs Consultancy/Speaker Fees Website Management Fee Website Hosting by eUKHost WPForms for new website Online membership Page upgrade MailChimp subscription Travel Expenses & Subsistence Insurance Room Hire Stationery & Postage Audit Fee Information Commisioner's Office Fee Trustee Board Costs PayPal Transaction Fees Advertising /Publicity Website Revamp Development Project Spending DropBox Costs Zoom Costs (x2) Company Tax return Bank Charges Total Expenditure Balance B/F from 23/24 Plus Income |
£ 9577.36 1973.82 940.28 178.75 285.82 0.00 12956.03 |
| 6310.00 616.30 2200.00 300.00 535.20 243.86 108.00 0.00 194.70 117.48 79.98 198.00 96.91 0.00 285.37 0.00 25.59 80.00 0.00 7.55 48.75 0.00 378.67 3800.00 0.00 287.76 420.00 0.00 16334.12 |
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| 35770.28 12956.03 |
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| Total Less Expenditure Balance C/F Bank reconciliation 1.08.25 Current Account Trust Account Investment Account Old Current Account PayPal Total Plus unpresented cheques from 23-24 paid out this year Payment to Tamarack Consultancy Services School Bursary Payments 2023 -2024 School Bursary Payments 2022-2023 Difference |
48726.31 16334.12 32392.19 |
|
|---|---|---|
| 5561.12 691.70 19315.18 464.97 298.72 26331.69 3800.00 2256.00 0.00 |
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| 6056.00 32392.19 |
||
| 0.00 |
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