Flooding in Schools - Eye on Calderdale

Riverside Junior school children learning by playing with a flood tank model.

The Environment Agency team have been engaging with schools across the catchment to improve the community's flood resilience and foster open communication with the people who are affected by flooding.

This has included attending careers fairs at Calder High School, Ryburn Valley High School, and Todmorden High School, as well as visiting students at the Climate Challenge College at Todmorden Learning Centre.

Additionally, they have visited schools and hosted a session for a day, which included a presentation on who the Environment Agency are, as well as activities with engagement resources. This included a dirty water simulation tank to learn about the hazards of flood water; a flood tank model with natural and engineered flood defences to protect a valley in a flood scenario; and a Projected Augmented Relief Model (PARM) which demonstrates the proposed scheme and other details onto a 3D model.

In July, the Environment Agency part-sponsored the Open Space 70 Festival hosted by Hebden Arts. As part of this, they visited students at Old Town School, who, with the guide of local artist Fran Sierevogel from Handmade Parade, produced the artwork displayed in the Flood Information Centre, featured in the Arts Trail.

For further information or to discuss an engagement visit with your organisation calderdalefas@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Child learning about flooding in Calderdale

Slow The Flow has developed a range of free teaching resources for both primary and secondary schools. Written by teachers and designed to fit within the KS2 and KS3 curriculum, with the intention of increasing the awareness of flooding, flood related issues and the use of Natural Flood Management as an option for mitigation against floods.

Download free lessons and resources for Key Stages 2 and 3.

Preparing your school for flooding

Having a flood plan forms an important part of your school emergency plans. By planning in advance, you will not only be better prepared to respond in an emergency, you will also be better equipped to recover in the long-term.

Working together to complete a plan will help you respond quickly when flooding happens. It can help you decide what practical actions to take before and during a flood, helping reduce the damage flooding can cause. Don’t wait until it happens, you may not have time.

5 steps to making your school more flood resilient

1. Check your flood risk. Remember that even if your school isn't located near a river or canal, you may still be at risk of flash flooding. In addition, students and staff may live or need to travel through areas at risk, and your school might be the evacuation point for other schools when they are flooded.

2. Sign up for free flood warnings so you know when to activate your plan. Call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 or visit www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings.

3. Create a flood plan for your school. This will need to include things like your school evacuation plan, how this is triggered, who to contact to report flooding/get help, the process for notifying parents, and plans for making sure children, parents and staff are aware of the procedure.

Here are some resources that might help.

Prepare a flood plan

4. Practice your flood plan. This will help you to identify any problems and check that communications are correctly set up and contact numbers are up to date.

5. Keep your plan up to date. You will need to ensure that the details in your plan are checked and updated regularly.

Calderdale Council's Community Safety and Resilience Team can offer advice on emergency plans and The Environment Agency's Flood Resilience team can deliver flood awareness engagement to children, staff and parents. If you'd like to know more, please email emergencyplanning@calderdale.gov.uk and YorkshireFloodResilience@environment-agency.gov.uk.