Category: Geography

RMetS work recognised

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 8 April 2026

The Royal Meteorological Society’s collaboration with Time for Geography was recognised with the Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award.

Time for Geography is the UK’s open-access, dedicated video platform for geography and geoscience education, developed in partnership with leading universities, employers and educational organisations.

The award recognises careers videos and resources developed to guide young people towards further study, training and careers connected to the weather & climate sector, and reflects the educational value of a collaboration designed to strengthen the future geography-geoscience talent pipeline.

The recognition comes as Time for Geography, in partnership with the Royal Meteorological Society and others, delivers the largest ever Geography-Geoscience careers intervention across UK schools and universities through its national and international audience. Having already reached an audience of over 2.5 million this academic year, the initiative is not only delivering scale, but is now also receiving national recognition from the educational community for the quality and value of what it is producing for students, teachers and schools. Through a Careers Insight Videos collection, Careers Explorer, Jobs and Opportunities Portal and Options and Open Days Pack, the collaboration is helping young people understand where geography can lead, how school and university pathways connect to careers, and what real opportunities exist in sectors such as weather & climate.

This work forms part of RMetS’ broader mission to support education and skills development across the weather and climate sector. By working collaboratively with partners, the Society seeks to strengthen the pipeline of future talent, ensuring that young people are better equipped to engage with – and contribute to – the challenges and opportunities presented by a changing climate.

Useful links:

Geographical Association Publishers’ Awards: https://geography.org.uk/get-connected/ga-awards/ga-publishers-awards/
Time for Geography careers collection: https://timeforgeography.co.uk/video-collections/geography-geoscience-careers/
Careers Explorer: https://timeforgeography.co.uk/careers/careers-explorer/
Jobs and Opportunities Portal: https://timeforgeography.co.uk/careers/jobs-and-opportunities-portal/
Options and Open Days Pack: https://timeforgeography.co.uk/careers/options-and-open-days-pack/
Emergency Careers Intervention article: Making geography a career-defining subject… before it’s too late
RMetS careers resources: https://www.rmets.org/career-resources

Ellie Pinches, RMetS Education Officer, was also shortlisted for the Geographical Association’s Journal Award for her article in Teaching Geography which addresses eight of the commonest weather and climate misconceptions we have identified in teaching resources and assessment materials, and evidenced in responses to the Royal Meteorological Society’s annual climate literacy survey.

The GA Journal Award is presented to articles which have made the greatest contribution to the development of good practice amongst geography teachers.

Blog CPD Geography

The El Nino Southern Oscillation

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 9 February 2026

In October 2025, Sylvia Knight, Head of Education at the RMetS, delivered a talk outlining the causes and impacts of ENSO to A level geography students for the Geographical Association in Northern Ireland.

With thanks to Niall Majury, the talk was recorded and can be viewed here.

Find classroom resources related to El Nino here

Careers Geography Snow

Met Careers Insight for Geographers

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 10 December 2025

We’ve been delighted to support Time for Geography to produce video content which is now live and being viewed as bookends to Time for Geography videos in school and university learning environments.

Using the Tools of Geography, Maths and Science to predict and prepare for our weather.

The RMetS careers video is also showcased as part of Time for Geography’s careers collection, where we feature titled videos aligned with career purpose and geography curriculum vocabulary.

Time for Geography have been working with a national community of inspiring geography/ geoscience industry leaders who care deeply about the future of their profession and recognise this unique, strategic opportunity to repair and future-proof the talent pipeline at this critical tipping point.

Blog Curriculum Geography maths Secondary Teaching

Classroom Resources for COP30

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 29 October 2025

The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, COP30, will be in Belém, Brazil, from 10th to 21st November 2025.

Key aims for the conference are to assess the progress signatories of the Paris Agreement have made towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, scaling up financing to developing country Parties to enable climate action and to launch an investment fund specifically to reward forest conservation in Tropical countries.

In order to help teachers engage students with what is occurring, we have developed two resources:

Climate zones of Brazil (adaptable lower secondary geography resource)
Averages, distributions and ranges (adaptable lower secondary mathematics resource)

Article Blog CPD Curriculum Geography Science Teaching

Weather, climate, geography and physics

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 14 July 2025

Geography is unique in its capacity to teach students about why and how climate change is happening, what the impacts of this are and how they vary across environments, places and people around the world, and how these impacts can be adapted to and mitigated against through actions locally and globally.

Geography’s integration of physical and human processes provides a distinctive curriculum context for the study of the interconnected aspects of climate change. However, underpinning all of this is an understanding of how weather and climate work, within the context of the whole climate system including the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and biosphere.

The physical processes which govern how weather and climate work depend on the concepts geography students will cover in their science lessons.

In a blog post for the Geographical Association and this summer’s Classroom Physics, Sylvia Knight looks at the synergies between science and geography and how the choice of contexts and examples in the former, and consistent vocabulary and explanations between the two can help develop students’ understanding and reinforce learning.

Blog Climate CPD Geography Secondary Teaching Weather

More For Teachers’ CPD video series released

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 20 May 2025

Back in 2021 we released the Weather and Climate Teachers’ guide, accompanied by resources for the classroom and teacher CPD.

We are now happy to announce that the CPD ‘More For Teachers’ documents are now available as a series of short films on our YouTube channel.

The videos, like the guide, are aimed at secondary geography teachers to support the delivery of weather and climate lessons to 11–14+ year old students. They are not linked to any specific curriculum and should support teaching across all of the UK.

See the first video here:

Blog Climate Change Curriculum Geography

New Climate Change, Extreme Weather and Adaptation Resource Collection

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 30 April 2025

We are delighted to publish a new collection of classroom resources, aimed at 14-16 (GCSE) geography teachers and students, exploring climate change, extreme weather, and adaptation to it.

Some of the resources in the collection were already available on MetLink, but most have been created for us by Rob Gamesby (Cool Geography) and are based on RMetS funded research, just completed, by Jiashu Zhu at Cambridge University. The research focusses on the causes, impacts and effectiveness of adaptation measures to river flooding in Sheffield, Extreme heat (heatwaves) in Cambridge and monsoon flooding in Pakistan.

Teachers at the Geographical Association conference 2025 playing adaptation Top Trumps, one of the resources in the new collection

Article Blog Curriculum Extreme weather Geography Teaching

Storm Bert Blog: A case study navigating the truth about flooding

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 26 February 2025

The RMetS education team have written a guest blog for Geography Southwest. Geography Southwest is a project to promote geographical education in the South West of England and beyond by creating and offering a wide range of resources to support the wider geographical community.

Storm Bert: A case study navigating the truth about flooding in a changing climate details the lifetime of Storm Bert, which caused significant damage back in November 2024. In particular, flood damage caused by the River Taff (in Wales) bursting its banks, really highlighted the need to continue but also improve our adaptation methods.

In the blog we also address some of the misconceptions of how our weather here in the UK and weather further afield is changing. It is crucial that we understand what trends have been identified in our climate system by climate scientists, in order to develop and establish effective adaptation methods.

Make sure you follow the link at the bottom of the page to get the FULL blog!

We also recently wrote a careers article for Geography Southwest, exploring the term ‘green careers’, ‘green skills’ and available resource for students with an interest in a career in weather and climate, particularly with a geography background.

Make sure to scroll down to the button of the page to get the full article!

Blog Climate Change Geography

New Resource – Climate Change in Azerbaijan

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 16 October 2024

COP29 will take place in Azerbaijan in November 2024.

Adapt these ideas to support your teaching in the weeks leading up to and during the conference to engage your students with the negotiations and where they are taking place.

The adaptable resource should let you pick ideas from a range which include climate zones, contour drawing, climate graphs, greenhouse gas emissions, map and graph skills in the context of Azerbaijan and climate justice.

Blog Geography Teaching

Free Online Weather and Climate CPD

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 9 October 2024

Join over 40,000 people who have taken our free, online award winning weather and climate CPD course designed specifically for secondary geography teachers and A level students, Come Rain or Shine, which starts again on 9th October.

This is an opportunity for anyone who has previously taken the course, or who has attended one of our in person weather and climate subject knowledge days, to access the resources again without cost.

The course is now spread over 5 weeks to maximise the free access period, and features updated and additional material.

The learning objectives for the course are:

Describe the weather features associated with depressions, anticyclones and the four main air masses which affect the UK.
Interpret a synoptic or weather chart, to provide details about wind speed and direction, precipitation and cloud cover.
Describe some of the physical processes which give rise to weather, such as convection, condensation, pressure gradients and the Coriolis force.
Investigate local weather conditions using readily available instruments.
Explain some of the processes which transfer energy through the Earth system, including the transient effects of volcanoes and changes in the Earth’s orbit, and how these processes relate to the Earth’s climate.
Apply an understanding of mid-latitude weather systems to the analysis of weather data and images.

The course focuses on UK weather (depressions, air masses, anticyclones) through a mix of videos, text, practical exercises and fieldwork, and also explores the wider global picture. It takes about 2 hours per week over 5 weeks.

Due to changes in the FutureLearn platform, participants only get free access to the resources for a few weeks. We therefore suggest that you only register yourself or your students for the course on the day you want to start accessing the materials.

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