Year 9 Climate Change Conference

On Tuesday 3rd February, the Year 9 cohort participated in the first ever Geography Climate Change Conference. The Conference took place in the Bourne and the Aske Hall with pupils acting as delegates for one of sixteen countries.

In the first half of the morning, pupils listened to keynote speeches from Professor Chris Stokes (Durham University), Andrew Miller (OH) and Mr Bown (Head of Geography), before drafting their two resolutions and then trying to persuade other countries to support them! The second half of the morning saw the six successful countries, whose resolutions had achieved support, presenting their resolution and answering questions from both their peers and the judges. After a tense round of voting, it was pleasing to see that both the Aske and Bourne groups did pass a resolution – something which has not been achieved by world leaders so far!

Overall, it was a fantastic experience for all pupils involved as they not only had fun and enhanced their understanding of Climate Change – a key twenty-first century challenge – but they also developed their range of transferable skills.

Special thanks go to Mrs Lemoine and Mr Cooper for organising this event.

“It was a great occasion and it was nice do something outside of the classroom developing new skills.” (Year 9 pupil – Aske)

“I felt the Conference really improved my ability to articulate myself clearly; I also learnt a lot from the speakers!” (Y9 pupil – Bourne)