With a background in finance, an aha moment from an exhausted mother of 3, Shamanth Pereira, occurred when cleaning up her then-4-year-old’s hundredth toilet roll lovingly placed down the loo. This waste and the fact that we cut down 27,000 trees daily just to wipe our bums fuelled Shamanth to create ‘Something Cheeky’, a bamboo, fully decomposing, organic toilet and kitchen rolls delivered to your door without a piece of plastic in sight. The Something Co now delivers toilet rolls and kitchen paper towels across the UK from Loch Lomond to Lands End. Their mission is to offer a range of sustianable everyday essentials to consumers.

We discuss how schools can utilise this resource and it can inform teaching sustainability in schools.

Website

www.somethingco.com

Social Media Information

Instagram – @somethingcheeky.co

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – March 2023

Book NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit

The new Khalifa International Award for Early Learning (KIAEL), funded by the United Arab Emirates, wants submissions from UK academics, projects, schools and nurseries displaying brilliance and innovation in the early education sector.

Two winners in each of the categories “Best Research & Studies” and “Best Programmes & Teaching Practices” will receive $50,000. The recipients will be announced in June 2023.

The KIAEL Awarding Committee, which features Professor Iram Siraj, Professor of Child Development and Education, University of Oxford, are looking for high-quality, evidence-based research and impactful programmes, methodologies, and advanced teaching practices. Early education is defined as anything aimed at children aged eight and under.

Initiatives for children with disabilities are particularly welcome.

The prize was founded by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister, and aims to improve the standard of early childhood education around the world.

It is open to entrants from any country, including developing nations.

There have already been more than 40 prize registrations from the UK, but the organisers want many more through January and February.

“Our mission is to identify and reward research on early-childhood education, care that supports improvements in practice and exemplary programmes or teaching practices demonstrated to improve quality and/or the learning and development of young children,” says Professor Iram Siraj.

Professor Siraj is one five internationally renowned early learning experts who make up the KIAEL Awarding Committee. They also include: Dr Steven Barnett, founding Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education and Board of Governors Professor of Education at Rutgers University in the US; Dr Nirmala Rao, a Chair Professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong and Serena H C Yang Professor in Early Childhood Development and Education; Fatma Ahmad Abdulla Al Bastaki, Cluster Manager, Emirates Schools Establishment, Ministry of Education, UAE; Dr Jana Fleming, Director, Early Childhood Development, Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi.

Judging will place a firm emphasis on rigorous evaluation and impact to recognise initiatives and research in early childhood that can be globally inspirational due to measurable positive results.

“All programmes submitted for consideration should have been subject to an evaluation of implementation or outcomes that provide strong evidence of current or potential impact,” said Professor Siraj.

The deadline for entries is the 28 February 2023. Applications need to be submitted online at https://el.khaward.ae/.

Nirmala Rao is a Serena H C Yang Professor in Early Childhood Development and Education, Chair Professor of Child Development and Education, and Director of the Consortium for Research on Early Childhood Development and Education (CORE), Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU).

She is a Developmental and Chartered (Educational) Psychologist by training and has conducted research on early childhood development and education in Asian cultural contexts. Professor Rao has published widely and serves on the Editorial Board for premier scholarly journals. She is a regular participant in high-level international meetings, written advocacy material, and undertaken consultancies for international organisations. Professor Rao has received awards for both research and teaching.

From the start of March 2023 the Education on Fire podcast will return to releasing 1 episode a week on a Monday.

The reason for this is the Primary Education Summit. I will be involved in hosting 4 live discussion panels and coordinating the events during March which will need a lot of my focus. With a natural break in place I started considering how the podcast could/should change to support me with regards to my work/life harmony and how I can best support you moving forward.

Please get in touch if anything in the episode resonates with you or you can help provide feedback about the options I explained.

• Sponsorship
• Creating additional themed podcast series to support the main show.
• Community action through my www.buymeacoffee.com/educationonfire

Thank you to Sandy from www.thegoodeggs.org for her recent purchase of 4 coffees and kind words of support for the show.

Subscribe on YouTube to get information about our new live podcasts where you can comments and ask questions www.youtube.com/@educationonfire5530

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – March 2023

Book NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit

Common Seas is a social enterprise tackling the plastic pollution crisis by driving new policy, investing in the circular economy and catalysing a cultural shift in how we make, use and dispose of plastic.

Common Seas has four interconnected programmes. Together, these achieve the system change we need to halt plastic pollution and protect our ocean.

Their mission is to quickly and significantly reduce the amount of plastic produced and stop it polluting our rivers and seas. Common Seas is an international team of scientists, researchers, policy experts, communicators and behaviour change professionals.

As Project Manager for Ocean Plastics Academy, Sarah Duffy is working with Common Seas to help inspire and empower the next generation of change makers. Our ocean needs a new generation of sea champions. Common Seas want every child to understand the plastic crisis so they can help create a plastic waste-free future.

Ocean Plastics Academy combines a suite of curriculum-aligned resources with practical activities to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to lead a plastic waste revolution in their school and beyond.

Sarah has shaped her career to combine her interest in education and her passion for the natural world. With Qualified Teacher Status, a Master’s in Education for Sustainability, and more than a decade working in the environmental education sector, she has extensive experience designing and managing programmes on complex topics of sustainability.

Website

www.commonseas.com

Social Media Information

Twitter @CommonSeas

Instagram – Common Seas

Resources Mentioned

Common Cause for Nature

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – March 2023

Book NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit

Shaunak is the founder and CEO of Yellowdig. Yellowdig is a community-driven active learning platform adopted by over 130 colleges and universities, K12 schools, and corporate training clients.

Yellowdig’s mission is to transform every classroom into an active, social, and experiential learning community.

Shaunak graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Bombay and completed his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prior to founding Yellowdig, Shaunak spent a decade advising global companies on technology, strategy, and growth.

Website

www.yellowdig.co

Social Media Information

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunak-roy-65231b/

Resources Mentioned

Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World – David Epstein

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – March 2023

Book NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit