Life Based Learning ™
Delivering subject content through nine life themes
Category: Featured
Skills for life
The recent report on education from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) states that the role of education is to equip people with the skills and personal qualities they need to succeed in life. In the recent Times Education Commission report, the… Continue Reading “Skills for life”
Safeguarding nature and the environment
The evidence is clear: the general public care deeply about nature and the environment. According to new polling, four in five UK adults believe that nature is under threat and that more needs to be done urgently to safeguard it. And we already know… Continue Reading “Safeguarding nature and the environment”
Teen Substance Use
Evidence from an NHS Digital survey indicates that smoking and drug use among teenagers is declining and that the amount of alcohol use is broadly unchanged since 2018. Vaping, on the other hand, is on the increase. Grabbing the headlines was the statistic that… Continue Reading “Teen Substance Use”
Unimaginative nanny-state rhetoric
‘Nanny state’ is a politically loaded term, used tendentiously to make an ideological point, namely that it is not the job of government to interfere (another loaded term, of course, as is ‘red tape’) in our everyday lives and decision-making. Expect to hear the… Continue Reading “Unimaginative nanny-state rhetoric”
Healthy lifestyle choices
They were nowhere near the front pages but two health-related stories in the Guardian this week – from different parts of the world – gave this reader particular pause for thought. The first warned that China is facing a health emergency in the coming… Continue Reading “Healthy lifestyle choices”
A people’s plan for nature
An important conversation about the future of nature has just started – one that will be “too big for anyone to ignore” – and the entire UK population is invited to join in. The People’s Plan for Nature is an initiative from WWF, the… Continue Reading “A people’s plan for nature”
Putting children’s health needs first
The comment that a week is a long time in politics is commonly attributed to former prime minister Harold Wilson. Yet even the worst crises of the 60s and 70s moved at a glacial pace compared to the events of the last few days… Continue Reading “Putting children’s health needs first”
Interacting with nature
A report on a six-year programme designed to bring together the youth and environmental sectors by involving young people across the UK in nature projects suggests that participation boosted mental health, self-confidence and employability. It says that participants were consistently found to be more… Continue Reading “Interacting with nature”
Fat shaming is no answer
A recent comment piece in the Times newspaper by the journalist Matthew Parris, arguing that fat shaming is the only way to tackle the obesity crisis, has – unsurprisingly – caused controversy. It comes in the same week that Diabetes UK warned about an… Continue Reading “Fat shaming is no answer”
Type 2 diabetes and young people
Analysis carried out by Diabetes UK shows that rates of type 2 diabetes in the under-40s are now increasing faster than in the over-40s, with cases up by 23% in the last five years. The charity’s chief executive has described the trend as “incredibly… Continue Reading “Type 2 diabetes and young people”