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.
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.
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.
EVENTS FOR SCHOOLS
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’ and you missed previous events, then why not come along to a Wicked Weather Watch CPD workshop?
Gloucester Workshop: Friday 6th July 2018, 9.30am – 12.30pm, The Pavilion, Sir Thomas Rich’s, Oakleaze, Gloucester. GL2 0LF
Bath Workshop: Thursday 20th Sept 2018, 9.30am – 12.30pm, The Royal High Junior School, Cranwell House, Weston Park East, Bath. BA1 2UZ
The workshops aim to:
- ‘unpick’ National Curriculum Geography at Key Stages 1 and 2 and how teaching about climate change and sustainability fits in;
- showcase the WWW scheme of work and accompanying resources, including many cross-curricular links;
- provide the opportunity to network 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.
Cost: £75 per person. Refreshments included. To book your place or find out more, email Vicky Oram-Ahern: schools@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk
Read feedback about previous workshops here.
FREE EVENT!
Lower Key Stage 2 teachers; Year 3 and 4 pupils
Exploring the Arctic!
Gloucester Workshop: Tuesday 10th July 2018, 9.15am – 2.45pm, The Royal High Junior School, Cranwell House, Weston Park East, Bath. BA1 2UZ
Come on an adventure with us to ask if the Arctic will still be a ‘frozen kingdom’ in 2050. Be an explorer for the day, witnessing key natural features, discovering more about the impact of climate change on this fragile area and considering how we might reduce our carbon footprint.
It promises to be a fun-filled day of creating learning! Sessions will include:
- Geography – with the Arctic Alive giant floor map.
- D&T – Food teechnology with The Bertinet Kitchen.
- Street Dance with Jukebox Collective
- Meet Polar explorer, Hazel Richards.
Up to 10 pupils and 2 staff member per school may attend. Email Vicky for a booking form: schools@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk
Read the event flyer here.
NEWS FROM SCHOOLS
During the first 3 months of 2018, WWW is delighted to have worked with 15 schools and more than 1000 children, 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!
We look forward to working with many more schools over the coming months!
Blaise Primary School: Wonders of the World!
To celebrate the wonderful world that we live in Blaise Primary School held a dressing up day Wonders of the World! on the last day of term 4 with all proceeds supporting Wicked Weather Watch. The children all got really involved and enjoyed choosing something from our wonderful world that amazes them – we saw explorers, native costumes, polar bears and a mouse! A huge thank you to all who took part and raised a fabulous £162!
This money will go towards supporting the WWW schools programme – highlighting the plight of the magical Arctic region, helping us inspire children to care about climate change and enabling us to continue to provide key educational resources and activities for FREE. It is only with contributions from generous individuals and organisations like Blaise Primary School that we are able to provide much of what we deliver for free, supporting as many young people as possible to access information about climate change, its impact, and how they can mitigate the effects on our amazing world.
At the beginning of term 4, WWW launched Blaise Primary School’s Geography term with a fun-filled day of activities including the opportunity to meet an explorer and a take part in a movement workshop for pupils to become intrepid explorers themselves! We hope that his day offered a fun, memorable and meaningful learning experience, and that the Wonders of the World! fundraising day offered a lovely way to consolidate the pupils learning and explore what small steps we can all take to have a more positive impact on our planet. The Geography term organised by brilliant teacher John Holloway brought the whole school community together and inspired the children to engage with important environmental issues.
Thank you Blaise Primary School for involving us in your awesome Geography term and for the whole school’s fantastic fundraising efforts!
Polar bear experiences scorching temperatures at Festival of Nature!
We had a great time meeting teachers, school children, their families and the public at large at the Festival of Nature, Bath at the weekend. Just as polar bears in the Arctic faced record temperatures earlier in the year, our cardboard polar bear was pretty hot as...
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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.
We'd love to hear from you...
Wicked Weather Watch is registered charity No. 1133006
All enquires (except press): info@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk | Tel: 07811 265156
Press enquiries: press@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk | Tel: 07703 789934
All content © Wicked Weather Watch or attributed photographer
Sixty (60) key stage 2 pupils treated to an Arctic Adventure.
After attending a CPD event organised for Geography/Humanities Subject Leaders and KS2 Curriculum Coordinators last June where previous Arctic-themed workshops and WWW materials were showcased, a request was made by Liz Price for a similar day at Longney C of E Primary Academy on 29th September 2017. The day was expertly delivered by Emma Espley and Sarah Shaw.
The first challenge for the children was to piece together WWW’s Arctic puzzle map to find out where they might be going for the rest of the day.
They were then split into two groups: those with Sarah created a fabulous Arctic-themed dance: arriving in Greenland by boat, donning their cold-weather gear, skiing to a glacier before making their way across and pitching tents. The final scene saw the children portray ice shelves and glaciers, melting away – a striking representation of the impact of climate change in the Arctic region.
Emma’s session asked: “What are the challenges facing the Arctic today?: and “What will the Arctic look like in the future?”. A card sort to look at ‘true’, ‘false’ and ‘unsure’ facts; a matching exercise of images, mainly taken during the Polar Ocean Challenge with their appropriate captions; the generation of an Arctic word cloud and a ‘spot the difference’ challenge looking at how the Greenland ice sheet has changed over 20 years or so. When asked if there was anything that surprised them, pupils mentioned the huge size of a polar bear and that around 4 million (10% of which are indigenous peoples, such as the Sami and Inuits), live within the Arctic Circle.
The final session of the day was a talk and Q&A by Digby Rawlins, Greenland expedition crew member. The children asked a lot of challenging questions, and were fascinated to meet someone who had travelled to the amazing place they’d been learning about in the morning.
If your school would like to hold a similar event please contact us – we’d love to support more schools with this awesome adventure day!
A more detailed look at the activities can be found in Emma’s blog.