Category: Teaching

Practice SATs Questions with climate context

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 16 December 2025

RMetS have answered a call to make some KS2 SATs practice questions with authentic weather and climate contexts.

These questions are taken and adapted from the last three years of SATs papers (specifically maths papers 2 and 3), with numbers changed to fit in with the updated context.

Context is wide ranging. Some questions refer to wildflowers, insects and grow-your-own vegetables to connect with young people’s love of nature and to empower them to act positively towards nature and our climate. Other more obvious connections include questions about the seasons, flooding, public transport and renewable energy.

Questions have been broken down into topic and are in PDF form, and available as Word documents (to make it easy to copy and paste) together with the answers for teachers (or students to self or peer mark).

Climate Change Teaching

Climate Change Quality Controlled Resources

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 4 November 2025

The following resources have been assessed against the Quality Control framework , climate change content, and meet the criteria:

November 2025

Megawatt game and associated teaching resources

October 2025

Geogramblings Improving Climate Literacy in the Geography Classroom CPD course

April 2025

Engineering UK Climate schools programme resources

Educake questions

February 2025

Twinkl Climate change CPD.

December 2024

SOS-UK Teach the Teacher presentation

September 2024

Twinkl Eco Adventurers scheme, Earth’s Climate & Cycles resources for EYFS – Year 6.

June 2024

AQA Climate Change and Sustainability in GCSE science

April 2024

Common Seas Education/ Plastic Clever schools secondary resources

March 2024

Engineering UK Tackling Climate Change

January 2024

Royal Meteorological Society with Dr Frost Learning

Secondary Maths Resources

December 2023

National Education Nature Park

What is the Anthropocene?

Climate change: making change

Climate change and mental health

Carbon cycle passport

Making change

Royal Meteorological Society with the Royal Geographical Society

Resources based on the 2021/ 2022 IPCC report for A level and GCSE geography

Royal Meteorological Society with the Young People’s Trust for the Environment

Heatwaves

Royal Meteorological Society with Mathematics Education Innovation (MEI)

Maths Climate Change Resources

Royal Meteorological Society

Climate change concept association tool

Carbon dioxide – seasonal cycles

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide

Royal Meteorological Society/ National Education Nature Park

Agree or disagree

UK Climate

The great debate

Greenhouse effect bulldog

Met Office/ National Education Nature Park

Exploring climate change data

Interpreting climate change models

Climate change P4C activities

Emotion line graphs

Royal Geographical Society/ National Education Nature Park

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Why is our climate like this?

Can climate change?

What will climate be in the future?

Does it matter if climate changes?

Royal Society/ National Education Nature Park

What do you want to know about climate change?

Thoughtbox/ National Education Nature Park

Changing climates

Changing climate cause and effects

Be the change

Phet/ National Education Nature Park

Greenhouse effect

Eden Project/ National Education Nature Park

Climate response

WWT/ National Education Nature Park

Climate champions

UCAR/ National Education Nature Park

Project drawdown

The Quality Control framework was developed as part of the National Climate Education Action Plan and in partnership with other organisations.

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)

Blog Extreme weather Teaching

Climate Clarity: common climate misconceptions

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 21 October 2025

Presently, climate education falls within the remit of science, and predominantly geography. If we broaden this perspective to assess where climate literacy sits, it is a similar story. Climate literacy does not have a universal definition; however we do know it is not limited to ‘climate science’ knowledge. It includes understanding of actions and solutions, covering both personal, corporate and (inter-)governmental responsibility, and needs to instil a sense of hope in young people. With this definition in mind, climate literacy is also currently taught primarily in the geography classroom.

At COP27, UNESCO’s Stefania Giannini said ‘Education is the most transformational climate adaptation action’. For this to ring true the education provided needs to be relevant, up to date and accurate, preventing the perpetuation of common misconceptions.

Here we address 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 article was published in the Geographical Association’s (GA’s) ‘Teaching Geography’ journal.

Thank you to the Geographical Association for the permission to host the article on MetLink too.

Blog Teaching

New Resource – Photosynthesis and Sunlight

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 10 October 2025

High quality climate education depends on students being able to make links between their relevant learning in different subjects and at different levels.

In this resource, designed for secondary science lessons, created by Melissa Lord, students use satellite images in the near infrared to assess whether vegetation has been damaged by hot summer weather.

The accompanying resources recap the factor limiting photosynthesis, as well as the electromagnetic spectrum.

Blog Extreme weather Teaching

Hurricane Humberto to Storm Amy – is it just a name change?

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 1 October 2025

Weather headlines are popping into the news at the moment, with some taglines wrongly indicating Atlantic hurricanes are on the way to the UK! Let’s clear this up!

We will not experience a hurricane any time soon in the UK. Hurricanes transition to extratropical cyclones by the time they hit the UK, and instead ‘arrive’ in the UK in a very similar form to the usual Low pressure systems the UK gets, perhaps bringing a little warmer (Tropical maritime air) and more moisture than normal. The storm making the headlines is forecast to move over the UK late Friday 3rd and into Saturday 4th October 2025 and is expected to be very strong. Due to the strength it has now been named Storm Amy to make people aware of the risks it poses and the actions needed to stay safe.

Currently there are two Tropical cyclones located off the east coast of the United States of America (Figure 1). In the North Atlantic Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes, a term also used for tropical cyclones in the north-eastern and central Pacific. These hurricanes are large low-pressure systems that are transporting large amounts of heat and moisture poleward from more Tropical regions, contributing to the atmosphere’s natural processes to balance out the energy imbalance between the Equator and the Poles.

Hurricane Imelda and Humberto are both (as of 3pm 1^st September 2025) categorised as Category 1 hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Imelda is currently positioned where conditions are still favourable for the hurricane to strengthen to become Category 2 hurricane later today.

Humberto is in a slightly later stage of its lifetime, having previously peaked at the very top of the Saffir-Simpson scale, Category 5, earlier in the week when sustained winds reached 160mph winds (Figure 2). This classified Humberto as a major hurricane.

Now Humberto is moving into unfavourable environments for hurricane development and is expected to weaken. It will then go through a process called extra-tropical transition by the end of the day and it is this process which ensures a hurricane will not be hitting UK shores. It essentially transitions the hurricane to what we know as a ‘normal’ area of low pressure.

Having two hurricanes in the North Atlantic at the same time is not unusual, and the occurrence of major hurricanes is become less unusual. One known impact of climate change is having a higher proportion of intense tropical cyclones or major hurricanes. This does not mean we are having more hurricanes per year overall, it is the intensity in windspeeds and precipitation that is increasing.

However, the proximity of the two hurricanes is unusual. These two cyclones rank 10^th in the list of closest named storms since 1966, with 582 miles between the hurricanes. When cyclones get close enough, less than 900km (~560miles), their wind fields can interact with one another in a process called the Fujiwhara effect. The Fujiwhara effect can cause cyclones to ‘dance’ or rotate around one another and sometimes even merge. Imelda and Humberto are not projected to merge but are interacting.

How will these hurricanes impact our weather in the UK?

We know from our understanding of the Global Atmospheric Circulation that there are westerly winds in the mid-latitudes and because of this the now hurricanes, but future ex-hurricanes, will be carried across the Atlantic towards the UK (Figure 3).

Humberto, once downgraded to an extratropical cyclone is expected to make its way over the Atlantic in very favourable locations for deepening the Low pressure and therefore strengthening the storm.

When on the western side of the Atlantic, ex-Tropical Humberto is expected to be in a right jet entrance (where the jet stream is speeding up or accelerating), and as it approaches the UK it is expected to be in the left exit region of the jet, both places that encourage rising motion, a reduction of air mass in the centre of the system and therefore cyclogenesis or deepening of a storm.

We can see by Friday evening (Figure 4) and into the early hours of the morning that there are very tightly packed isobars around the system, indicating the Low pressure, but also the extremely high winds that this storm will bring to the UK. Even after the centre of Storm Amy has moved NE of the UK on Saturday (Figure 5), the isobars are forecasted to stay tightly packed together and the strong winds will persist for longer.

Due to the forecasted intensity of this storm, the Met Office has named it Storm Amy, using the storm names that were announced earlier in the year. This will be the first named storm of the year.

Exploring hurricanes and storms in your classroom

If you would like to explore hurricanes like Humberto and Imelda and Low pressures like Storm Amy during the events or retrospectively earth.nullschool is a great tool to use.

This interactive globe shows numerous atmospheric variables through many different layers in the atmosphere and also extends to ocean waves and currents.

The surface winds show the Low pressure systems well, with the rapid cyclonic winds (anticlockwise winds in the Northern Hemisphere) standing out clearly. In order to do this go to the website and:

Click on ‘Earth’ in the bottom left of the page to bring up the menu
Select the variable and layer you would like to look at (a reminder that the lower the pressure, the higher up in the atmosphere). For surface winds, make sure Mode = ‘Air’, Animate = ‘Wind’, and Height = ‘Sfc’. If the overlay = ‘Temp’ it shows nicely that these storms are transporting warmer air poleward.
Select the time. Click the calendar icon in the ‘Control’ panel and select your date.
Once you have the data you want, you can then scroll through the time with the arrows in the ‘Control’ panel and see the progression of the storms.

Some related resources:

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.

Article Blog CPD Teaching

Whatever the weather: A guide to climate and weather

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 3 June 2025

FutureLearn have published a blog by Sylvia Knight, RMetS Head of Education. It’s an introduction to weather and climate, looking at weather forecasts, climate projections and the attribution of extreme weather events to global warming.

This relates to Come Rain or Shine, the free, 5-week weather and climate CPD course for secondary geography teachers (and others with an interest in UK weather) which is now running throughout the year.

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:

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!

November 2025

October 2025

April 2025

February 2025

December 2024

September 2024

June 2024

April 2024

March 2024

January 2024

December 2023

How will these hurricanes impact our weather in the UK?

Exploring hurricanes and storms in your classroom

Some related resources:

Subscribe to MetLink updates

Weather and climate resources and events for teachers