About this Project:
Learning about our climate has never been more important. Having a weather station at St Benedict’s would enable our students from across the whole School to have a hands-on approach to weather forecasting and climate modelling. This would be provided by the latest digitalised climate monitors, including particulate air pollution, along with traditional weather monitoring equipment using a Stevenson screen in the school garden. As part of the work of the school’s Ecocentric Committee, we would use the pollution data, taken at different points around the school site to map changes in pollution levels throughout the day.
We want to engage our students in critically analysing our weather, looking at the day to day, but also to the future of climatic trends. In the senior school, weather and climate is taught as a module in the L4, climate change in the U4 and L5. The U6 also look at water and carbon cycle; this includes hydrology and climate patterns. In the Junior School, weather and the seasons form part of the National Curriculum from Key Stage1. With the acquisition of weather monitoring equipment our students' learning will be greatly enhanced from the very beginning and and throughout their school careers.
Having this equipment will take learning outside of the classroom and into the ‘real world’, we can create a legacy of climate data at St Benedict’s, keeping digital records of temperature, rainfall and pollution that future students over St Benedict’s next 120 years will be able to look back on and learn from.
Why Your Support Matters
"Having the latest scientific climate monitors at school will benefit students and staff alike at St Benedict's. From the nursery to sixth form, all of our students can engage with learning about our weather and climate. Recording and analysing the weather in our little corner of Ealing can tie into looking at local, regional, national and global climate change. This equipment will not only benefit Geography, but it will also offer other departments from Science to Mathematics the chance to captivate their students with real world data, statistical analysis and problem solving."
Kate Smith, Head of Geography