23TRA208 Global Citizenship & Environmental Education Resource Booklet

Some of the key skills that are covered include critical thinking, being creative, listening, debating, empathy, and solidarity.

Facilitator: Dr. Patrick Kirwan
Patrick Kirwan BSc PhD PGCE

After a career in science as an epidemiologist, Patrick trained as secondary science teacher with Teach First in London. While working in disadvantaged London schools Patrick developed a bespoke award-winning model for a whole school nature curriculum. This fundamentally changed his perception on education. While continuing to teach, Patrick set up the nature aspect of a community social enterprise to share his model with other primary and secondary schools. In school and community settings, he uses nature as a conduit to foster wellbeing, leadership skills, confidence, resilience, environmental awareness and climate action. In March 2021 Patrick founded The Irish Schools Sustainability Network (ISSN). The network brings together teachers and students from different schools to foster climate and nature conversations. These schools work together as a community on joint initiatives, they share best practice, and they work towards pushing sustainability to the top of the educational agenda. The ISSN ran the Climate and Nature Summit during COP26. Over 2K schools took part. Patrick believes that we need to build networks within and across sectors, working as one, to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.