Schools and Young People - Eye on Calderdale

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

We visit schools in Calderdale to teach students about:

Flood safety: How to stay safe during a flood.
Local flood schemes: Projects that protect the area from floods.
Job opportunities: Careers in the flood and environmental sectors.

The Environment Agency provides a special model to show students how flood defences work. Students see how things like flood walls, barriers, planting trees, and restoring wetlands can protect towns from powerful floodwater.

Child learning about flooding in Calderdale

Free Flood Education Resources for Schools

Slow The Flow offers a collection of free teaching resources for both primary and secondary schools. These materials were created by experienced teachers and align with Key Stages 2 and 3. They are designed to raise awareness of flooding, its impacts, and how Natural Flood Management can help lower the risk.

Thanks to the Community Foundation for Calderdale, these resources are free for all schools in the UK.

Check out the resources to help the next generation learn about flooding and how to prepare for it.

A classroom setup showing a Sphagnum moss experiment on a red triangular table. On the table is a white tray containing pieces of Sphagnum moss, with a sloping black plastic gutter fixed to a light‑blue wooden frame positioned above it to demonstrate how water flows through different materials. Behind the table are additional trays of vegetation and a clear container holding heather or similar moorland plants. The room has a wooden floor and a piano against the wall, with colourful children’s artwork displayed on the bulletin boards in the background. The scene suggests a hands‑on school activity related to peatland or water‑retention experiments.

Landscapes for Water School Sessions

The National Trust and Yorkshire Water partnership project Landscapes for Water has created a fun school programme about protecting the environment and managing floods naturally. It includes two interactive assemblies and hands-on activities to get kids excited about nature and climate change. Landscapes for Water is funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and White Rose Forest.

Bog in a Box Assembly

This session teaches kids why healthy moorlands are important for fighting climate change, preventing wildfires and reducing floods. Students learn about sphagnum moss and its benefits, and how different materials are used to build dams that slow water down. A live demonstration makes these ideas easy to understand, showing how using nature can protect our communities.

Woodland Assembly

This 30-minute talk shows why trees are so important for preventing floods and dealing with climate change. It also explains the problems trees face and how children can help by planting them and caring for the environment. Both the Woodland and Bog in a Box assemblies have reached a variety of different schools, totalling close to 1,750 children so far. These assemblies are followed up with practical tree planting sessions, so that children get to put their knowledge into action.