The Department for Education’s ongoing review of the national curriculum, with final recommendations due in September 2025, aligns with a crucial moment for ocean literacy in schools nationwide. As part of the 2025 academic year, all schools will be required to implement a Climate Action Plan and appoint a Sustainability Lead. These developments present an unprecedented chance to ensure the ocean plays a central role in educating the next generation.
When I was a geography teacher, the ocean rarely featured in my classroom. Despite its vastness, its life-supporting role in regulating our climate, and its extraordinary biodiversity, the open ocean often felt like a distant, abstract concept. Terrestrial ecosystems dominated the syllabus, while the ocean – covering 71% of the planet – was reduced to a few scattered references.
Now, after 12 years in mainstream teaching and five years in conservation education, I realise just how much was missing. The ocean isn’t just a backdrop to the story of life on Earth: it is the story. It connects climate, biodiversity, culture and economy. It holds profound lessons about resilience and interconnectedness – lessons that can both spark curiosity and prepare our students for the challenges ahead.
Earlier this year, Blue Marine Foundation offered schools the chance to attend a special premiere of OCEAN with David Attenborough. Over 300 schools applied for tickets and the demand revealed something I had long suspected: both teachers and students are hungry for ocean education. And their responses after the premiere confirmed it.
Miss Sarah Harr, Deputy Head of Year 8 from Sydenham School in London shared: “The students were shocked, mesmerised, blown away and experienced the emotional rollercoaster needed in this generation to bring about much-needed awareness and change.”
David Attenborough’s words from OCEAN resonate deeply: “The most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.” If that is true, and science tells us it is, then surely the curriculum must reflect it.
Why ocean literacy matters
Ocean literacy isn’t about squeezing another topic into an already crowded syllabus. It’s about adopting an Earth Systems approach that shows students how land, sea, atmosphere, ice and freshwater are all interconnected. Just as importantly, it means recognising how the ocean flows through every subject, so that young people gain not only knowledge, but also the skills and agency to meet the climate and biodiversity crises head-on.
Crucially, it’s also about careers. Our post-premiere feedback found many students were eager to learn how to pursue paths in marine science, conservation, renewable energy, sustainable fisheries and the growing blue economy. Even those pursuing other professions will enter a workforce where sustainability is non-negotiable. By embedding ocean-climate literacy early, we can help shape a generation that sees sustainability not as an option, but as standard practice across all careers.
Five ways to bring the ocean into your teaching
While we press policymakers to make ocean literacy a core part of the curriculum, there are steps teachers can take now:
- Use local case studies: Connect your subject to nearby rivers, estuaries or coastlines. Show students how their local environment is linked to global ocean systems.
- Bring in cross-curricular links: Explore the ocean through other subjects art, literature, history and economics as well as science and geography. This makes the subject accessible to a wider range of students.
- Leverage awe and wonder: Films like OCEAN can ignite curiosity. Use multimedia, VR tools and interactive resources to inspire empathy and engagement.
- Tap into free resources and support: Programmes like Blue Marine Foundation’s new Ocean Education Legacy Programme offer schools guided support, CPD, field trips and ready-to-use classroom resources to make integrating ocean literacy much easier.
- Connect to careers: Highlight blue and green career pathways. Invite guest speakers working in marine fields, or link lessons to sustainability-focused jobs.
A legacy of change
As Attenborough reminds us: “If we save the ocean, we save our world.”
If the curriculum review is to be truly “fit for the future”, it must place the ocean at the heart of teaching and learning. The appetite among schools is already clear; what’s needed now is the support to turn intent into action and to help schools deliver on their Climate Action Plans with confidence.
By Victoria Turner, Education Lead, Blue Marine Foundation
