Blue Marine Max Stenbeck Legacy Programme announces national rollout of its Education Hub after impacting more than 1,000 children through a 10-school pilot.
Over 1,000 children from UK schools facing the greatest barriers to outdoor education have been reached with a new suite of free ocean literacy resources – and thousands more are set to follow.
This comes at a time when teachers are being asked to prepare for more meaningful climate and sustainability education through forthcoming curriculum changes, while also meeting Gatsby Benchmarks requiring them to integrate career and workplace relevance into academic lessons.
The Ocean Education Hub, is a free resource which is now available to primary and secondary schools across the UK to help teachers make those connections from a leading marine conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation.
The hub gives teachers instant access to curriculum-linked digital resources and continuing professional development. Selected schools facing the greatest barriers to outdoor education can also access free coastal field trips, ocean advocacy filmmaking workshops and expert-led careers talks. The offer combines materials teachers can use in lessons with opportunities for pupils to see marine conservation in practice.
The programme was piloted in 10 schools across England. In its first year, careers talks reached over 700 students, hundreds of whom subsequently said they wanted to pursue a career in marine science or conservation. More than 300 students also took part in free field trips and filmmaking workshops.
Blue Marine is now calling on 20,000 primary and secondary schools across England to join the Education Hub and add marine science to the curriculum.
Victoria Turner, Education Lead at Blue Marine, said: “Learning about the ocean is one of the most powerful ways to make climate and sustainability education tangible and solution-led for young people. For pupils in coastal towns, it’s also personal: we want them to see that a career on the coast is full of opportunities and can meaningfully inform their sense of identity and marine heritage.”
The programme addresses two practical needs: resources that connect climate and sustainability to the curriculum, and experiences that show pupils how that learning relates to work. Field trips introduce pupils to live conservation projects, filmmaking workshops give them a way to communicate ocean issues, and careers talks introduce the jobs connected to marine science and conservation.
For pupils aged 7 to 16 in coastal communities, including Cornwall, Sussex and Devon, the programme aims to make those career possibilities locally relevant. Its focus is on helping young people understand the opportunities connected to their coastline, with additional experiences targeted at schools that face the greatest barriers to taking learning beyond the classroom.
One secondary school teacher described the value of a trip: “They came away knowing about new species that they’d never seen or heard of before. What they took from it was how impactful the oceans are, as well as the rainforest”. A pupil called it “the perfect mix of outdoor fun and education”.
The Hub is the entry point to the Blue Marine Max Stenbeck Legacy Programme. Cristina Stenbeck said: “My brother Max believed in giving young people the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to shape a better future. Through his charitable foundation, we have continued that commitment by supporting programmes that create lasting impact. Our partnership with Blue Marine reflects a shared belief that protecting the natural world starts with understanding it. The ocean is vital to our climate, communities and future, yet too many children grow up without meaningful access to it. Supporting this programme in Max’s name is about helping young people connect with the ocean, understand its importance and see the opportunities it offers. Seeing it expand nationally is the kind of lasting legacy we hoped to create in his memory.”
