Helping the younger generation discover how we treat wastewater

I think a nice ‘stinky’ school trip is what kids love and that’s just what we’re organising! We’re planning exciting educational trips at three of our wastewater treatment works – Budds Farm, Peacehaven and Sandown. School children in Year 3 and upwards will be able to join us and experience a site tour and learn first-hand about our activities. They’ll have a glimpse into our industry and see how they can help play their part alongside us to help protect the environment, and have the chance to understand how wastewater from their homes and communities is managed.

As Education Officer in our Community Engagement team, I spend a lot of time working out how to engage children in learning, whether it’s through our Water Supply Challenge workshops, talks about the water cycle or activities looking at wastewater filtration. Giving children the chance to understand the process that our dirty water goes through by having a window into the world of our industry, is a unique experience for an adult, and for a child it could be a fantastic experience that they’ll take through to adulthood.

The tours will give children the chance to have an experiential learning opportunity; learning while seeing something new, smelling new smells and listening to different noises as we move around the site and meeting people who work in our industry every day.  We plan to cater for all young people and have specific tours for children with additional needs.

This is going to be an exciting, hi-tech visit, and it should be a fun and memorable experience for all the young people that engage with it. We’re creating an offering that links to the curriculum and includes a mix of seeing the process in action, hearing about it, talking about it and spending a bit of time in our on-site classroom, embedding their learning.

Health and safety is a non-negotiable priority at all times, so we have sourced special equipment for children visiting our sites who may be as young as seven years old. And while it’ll be fun for our young visitors to wear child-sized high vis waistcoats and gloves, and special helmets with an integrated radio system and vizor, there’s a serious side to this innovative kit too. Making sure the children are protected while hearing and seeing clearly anywhere on the site, means we can maintain a learning environment which is both safe and engaging.

For me, the most exciting thing about the project is building all the relationships with colleagues around the business to make it happen. It’s a real team effort and I’ve been working with colleagues from many areas across the business, including operational staff, project management, health and safety, brand and communications. I’m proud to be part of the team creating a project that will help and influence behaviour change long into the future – we’re really succeeding together!

Jo

Education Officer