Schools
Making climate change come alive
WWW is passionate about helping young people to understand about climate change. We support teachers with all the resources they need to make climate change and it’s related topics as fun and engaging as possible in the classroom and beyond.
WWW links directly with explorers and scientists who have first hand experience of the Arctic and other places experiencing climate change. Most of our teaching resources use first hand information and data from these experts, enabling us to produce truly unique and inspiring materials for use in schools.
Teaching resources
Here teachers can sign in to access curriculum linked resources and other materials to support teaching in the classroom.
Check out our updated KS2 Scheme of Work: “Let’s go on an awesome Arctic adventure – How is climate change affecting the Arctic region?”
It contains six weeks of lesson plans plus all the accompanying resources needed to make teaching about climate change, the Arctic and sustainability fun and memorable for all pupils!
How we work with schools
We inspire – school visits: WWW enables children to hear directly from those who have witnessed climate change first hand. Our fantastic volunteers who have either travelled to the Arctic or are experts in climate change, visit schools to tell children about their adventures and experiences.
We engage – whole day events: Our Arctic themed events for individual or groups of schools allow children to get interactive with climate change through dance, drama, music, and even cookery. Each event is attended by an Arctic explorer, bringing their personal stories and a lot of adventure!
We support learning – assemblies and teaching resources: In partnership with teachers and education experts, we develop education materials that teach about climate change, sustainable living and the Arctic regions in a way that is fun and creative while meeting curriculum requirements. Teachers have used the resources for topics such as Explorers & Adventurers, Cold Environments, Splendid Skies, the Poles and many more! We also offer CPD workshops and KS2-3 Transition days.
We connect – creating global links: We link children in the UK to children in the Arctic or to people who have been there. We connect schools that share a passion for creative learning and positive local and global impact. And we join individuals and schools to millions of others who share the desire to help our fragile world through our partnerships, such as The Climate Coalition.
Take a look at our SCHOOLS LEAFLET to find out how WWW can support your school.
EVENTS FOR SCHOOLS
FREE CPD Workshops
Calling all Key Stage 1 and 2 Coordinators, Geography/Humanities Subject Leads, Teachers, NQTs and trainee teachers!
Do you teach the topic ‘invaders/explorers’?
Would you like to meet/link up with a real-life explorer or scientist?
How might you teach about cold environments in a more cross-curricular way?
Are you keen to increase pupils’ awareness of the rising temperatures and shrinking ice within the Arctic, firm evidence that global warming is really happening?
If the answer to any of the above questions is ‘yes’, then why not come along to a Wicked Weather Watch CPD workshop?
The workshops aim to:
- ‘unpick’ National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2 to see how climate change and sustainability fit in;
- showcase the WWW scheme of work and accompanying resources, with Geography focus but including many cross-curricular links;
- provide a networking opportunity with teachers from other schools to share best practice;
- provide invaluable web-links and free resources, plus time to explore these and ask questions/seek advice.
NEXT WORKSHOPS:
- Bristol: 21st March 2019, 9.30am-12.30pm, Clifton High School, BS8 3JD.
- Gloucester: 4th April 2019, 9.30am-12.30pm, Sir Thomas Rich’s High School, GL2 0LF.
- Bath: 6th June 2019, 9.30am-12.30pm, Royal High Junior School, BA1 2UZ.
Cost: FREE. Refreshments included. To book your place or find out more, email Vicky Oram-Ahern: schools@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk
Read feedback about previous workshops here.
All workshops are currently FREE to attend, thanks to the generosity of our supporters who donated to our Climate Confident Teachers fundraising campaign, which will fund least 40 teachers to attend our CPD workshops.
NEWS FROM SCHOOLS
The first couple of months of 2019 has been a whirlwind – WWW is delighted to have worked with so many children and schools, helping them to better understand about climate change and the Arctic in a fun yet meaningful way! A big thank you to all our volunteers and Arctic explorers without whom this would not be possible!
An Arctic Adventure Charity Week!
WWW were absolutely thrilled to be chosen by Victoria Park Primary School’s Year 5 as their charity during Charity Week! During the week, they had a visit from Vicky who talked to them about climate change and explorers – running our by now infamous “Explorer sleeping bag race” – and in particular how melting ice is affecting rising sea levels.
The class then held a series of events including a sponsored walk and cake sale to raise funds for us. Amazing! The sponsored walk was 1.34 miles to represent how Arctic sea ice has declined by 13.4% per decade between 1979 and 2015. Declining sea ice will lead to a loss of habitat for many Arctic animals, including seals and polar bears, and change indigenous people’s way of life.
On the final day of the week, Gill was delighted to visit the school and present certificates to the whole class, with three members receiving books for outstanding contributions to Charity Week.
A huge thank you to Mr Mepsted and all the children – we really appreciate your support and had a great time with your throughout the week!
Pole to Pole at Christchurch, Cheltenham
What a fantastic day working with Years 2-6. After class teachers had briefed pupils about the day ahead, they joined myself and the amazing Emma Espley (https://create2inspire.co.uk) to discover more about these incredible regions.
Emma was to helping pupils understand the effects of climate change on the Arctic and how this affects the world. To begin the students simply explored the giant floor map to make their own connections.
The main part of the session encompassed three or four different activities in order to cover aspects such as climate change, mapping sea ice cover, global warming and what the UK is doing to help. Whilst pupils were familiar with several of these terms and had a good grounding of such issues, most, if not all, students had acquired new knowledge and understanding by the end of their hour with Emma.
Over lunch, Emma ran an abridged session with Year 2 and the school’s Geography Subject Leader as they had recently been looking at cold environments and to give them a flavour of the Arctic Alive programme.
Meanwhile, I was looking at ice, ice and more ice, and the role that melting ice plays in climate change at both the Poles. We set up a simple science experiment to learn more about when melting ice causes sea level to rise and when it doesn’t!
Pupil’s knowledge of the North and South Poles and the wider Arctic and Antarctica was put to the test by using the ‘Poles Apart’ activity from Week 1 of WWW’s scheme of work (https://wickedweatherwatch.org.uk/teaching-resources/).
We then looked in more detail at the links between climate change, melting ice and sea level rise, the importance of the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, how much sea level might rise if they melted and the global impact this might have.
We rounded off the session with a fun comparison of different Polar expeditions using WWW’s explorer sleeping bag race. It was the Arctic versus Antarctic and the old versus the new – looking at how expeditions to the poles have changed between the 1800s and today, including the impact of climate conditions upon our ability to travel to and from the poles.
I was really impressed with the participation and knowledge of the children. Thank you to all who made it such as fantastic day
Building climate confident teachers with 2 inset days
Wicked Weather Watch's new school year got off to a flying start training over 40 teachers to be climate confident through two inset days. On Monday, we were at Robert Ferguson Primary School, Carlisle, with the fabulous CDEC delivering our first joint workshop. The...
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If you’d like to register your school’s interest in Wicked Weather Watch and find out more about how we can work together, please get in touch using our Schools Contact Form.
Or, if you already know that you want your school to join the WWW community and have access to all our teaching materials and resources, sign up using the JOIN NOW button!
We’d love to hear from teachers using WWW or other materials to teach about climate change, and showcase examples of pupils’ work on this page. If you would like to share your ideas and example, and inspire more young people to get involved in climate change then email: info@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk or use the Schools Contact Form.
WWW works together with other organisations to promote learning about climate change and gather information and data to develop our materials. Visit our partner page to find out more.
We'd love to hear from you...
Wicked Weather Watch is registered charity No. 1133006
All enquires: info@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk | Tel: 07811 265156
All content © Wicked Weather Watch or attributed photographer
