Pupils learn ‘moor’ at ‘UK’s largest outdoor classroom’

Primary school pupils across the region attended Yorkshire Water-led sessions to learn about water quality, biodiversity and super-absorbent mosses, at the ‘UK’s largest outdoor classroom’.

Around 2,500 pupils attended the ‘Let’s Learn Moor’ event hosted annually by the Regional Moorland Groups, BASC and Countryside Learning.

Yorkshire Water delivered sessions at Dallowgill Moor and in Hebden Bridge during the event, to educate primary school children on moorland management, water quality, carbon capture, biodiversity and all the ecosystem values of Yorkshire Water’s Beyond Nature initiative.

Anne Reed, social value and education manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “We led practical sessions for the children to get hands-on and experiment with peat and sphagnum moss, used for carbon storage and natural flood management.

“The children weigh the moss dry, wet it, weigh it again and calculate how it holds about 10 times its own weight in water. We also take models which replicate grips on the moor and demonstrate how the flow of water changes from a bare grip (drainage channel), to being vegetated and then to being vegetated with small dams installed.”

The Yorkshire Water education team attend events like these as part of Yorkshire Water’s land strategy initiative, Beyond Nature, which focuses on helping farmers use their land for raising livestock, providing a home for nature, creating spaces for recreation, storing thousands of tonnes of carbon, natural flood management and much more.

'Let’s Learn Moor' serves as the UK’s prime annual upland education event, introducing children to the people and organisations safeguarding moorland landscapes and species.