UKH

I am a year 6 teacher who is currently planning for our topic after the Christmas Holidays- 'What does it take to climb a mountain?'

To help engage the children, and hook them into our learning, I need a 'wow' morning. I am wondering if anyone would be willing to come into school (early February) and deliver a talk about the wonders/dangers of mountains, and what it actually takes to climb them? Speaking to someone who regularly walks up mountains and has first hand experience of these environments is far superior to anything that I can offer. 

We don't have a set date yet, so we would be able to accommodate a potential speakers' needs. 

I teach at Cottingley Village Primary School which is located just outside Bradford and it isn't too far from the Yorkshire Dales, but the school is willing to pay a small fee if someone wanted to deliver a talk.

Hannah Cairns (h-cairns1@hotmail.co.uk)

Cottingley Village Primary School

Hi, just an idea, why don't you ask local mountain rescue team, you could also then get your pupils to raise some money for them, cheers si

It would be great if you could get Alan Hinkes to do it (he's based in Yorkshire): 

https://www.alanhinkes.info

Ella Kirkpatrick might be another idea?  

I did a similar talk for my mum's year four class for their mountains topic and I'm doing it again this term. They absolutely loved it, lots of having a go packing a bag, playing with cams and that sort of thing. 

Hope you find someone suitable!

I did something similar with a Yr 7 group which was really literature based. I read them the famous passage from Touching the Void where Simon Yates cuts the rope. I previously gave them a little background to the events leading up to this, and talked about the use of swear words in a literary context. But visual aids such as photo-books, slides or photographic images and equipment used by climbers all helps to provide meaning. Hope it goes well.

My missus quite often borrows some of my gear to take in and show the kids when she is doing a suitable topic. Last year they did about Captain Scott, this year they are doing explorers.

She works in a pretty deprived school so things like crampons and ice axes are fairly exotic to the kids and they love it. She said even the kids that are hard to motivate get really engaged.