Natural History GCSE is being planned to reconnect teenagers with wildlife Exclusive: i understands an exam board is working up proposals for the new GCSE, which would involve learning the names of flora and fauna

A GCSE in natural history is being planned to help teenagers reconnect with wildlife by learning the names and characteristics of British plants and animals, i can reveal.

i understands that a major UK exam board is actively working up proposals for the new qualification, which is the brainchild of broadcaster and nature writer Mary Colwell and backed by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Ms Colwell said she was hopeful it could be taught in schools in England as early as September 2021.

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She said the GCSE would help young people reclaim knowledge lost in recent decades as society has become “much more urban, much more indoors” and British wildlife has been depleted.

Field observation

A survey last summer found that more than half of UK children are unable to identify a stinging nettle.

While Biology GCSE focuses on the “processes of the living world”, Ms Colwell said Natural History GCSE would concentrate on “what the living world is”, teaching teenagers about specific organisms, field observation skills, conservation and how nature has influenced art and culture.

The subject would tap into the “big movement of young people who care about the natural world” reflected by the school climate strikes and Extinction Rebellion.

“I think young people really want to know where they’re living, what’s around them, how they’re connected to it, and they want to know how that fits into the bigger picture of the world,” Ms Colwell said.

She added that the course would bolster conservation efforts in the UK.

‘Giving it a name’

“You only really form a relationship with something by giving it a name,” she said. “The more we know, the more we’ll understand, the more we’ll love, the more we’ll protect.

“Skills of observation, of monitoring through the seasons, of being able to pick out detail and behaviour and form and colour, interactions, those field skills are gone, and I think it’s making us a lot less able to deal with the future.”

The campaign for the new GCSE began in 2011 following concerns that children no longer routinely learn plant and animal names at home.

After initially struggling to make headway, it was boosted when the Green Party picked it up – it was included in their 2019 general election manifesto.

Meeting with Gove

Ms Lucas also brokered a meeting with Michael Gove when he was serving as Environment Secretary. He was sympathetic to the idea, putting the campaign in touch with senior exam board contacts who have taken the idea forward.

Exam sector figures think the current political situation is more favourable for the launch of a new GCSE than at any point in recent years, i understands.

In 2018 the Government imposed a moratorium on exam changes until the end of the parliament, but this is believed to have lapsed with the election.

In October the school standards minister, Nick Gibb, revealed the Department for Education would soon be consulting on content for a new GCSE in British Sign Language.

Children stumped on common species

A study in August 2019 found that 51 per cent of UK children were unable to identify a stinging nettle.

The research, commissioned by the family activity app Hoop, involved 1,000 children aged 5 to 16 being shown various natural objects and asked what they were.

Ninety-seven per cent failed to identify a beech leaf, while 82 per cent failed to recognise an oak leaf.

When shown a bumblebee, 83 per cent of children did not identify it.

They fared better with larger animals and birds, but even then 65 per cent could not name a kingfisher or a blue tit and 49 per cent did not identify a puffin.

Twenty-three per cent failed to identify a robin, while 22 per cent could not name a badger.