New Wave - Beyond the Drain tour School Trip
Southern Water
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An educational trip 'Beyond the Drain' at Peacehaven Wastewater Treatment Works is immersive, interactive, and engaging. The tour encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and environmental awareness, making it a memorable educational visit for ages 7-18 years (Key stages 2-5).- Engaging, curriculum-linked tours with SEN adaptations
- Discover the journey of wastewater and the science behind wastewater treatment on a real life operational site
- Interactive ‘Slow the Flow’ workshop to learn why storm overflows are in use and how we are working to reduce their use.
- Meet and chat with Southern Water employees and find out about our career pathways - meeting Gatsby Benchmarks 2,4,5 and 6!
Our tours run every THURSDAY during term time. Please ensure when sharing potential dates to book, these fall on a Thursday.
Free Tour visits and bursaries
Current School Trip Offer
FREE! Our tour visits are free and we are delighted to also have a travel bursary available to aid with travel costs.
Teacher Checklist
Risk Assessments Inspection Visits Free Places for Teachers Free Places for Students Bursaries or Funded Places Available Resource Packs £50m PL Insurance
We can visit your school in:
What activities are available during educational visits?
Pollution spills from storm overflows are quite rightly high on the public and political agenda. Our Slow the Flow workshop (as part of the tour visit) will explore how the sewer system works and why we have storm overflows. We will also explore the challenges we face to stopping their use and the action being taken to reduce their usage.
KS2 and KS3 will explore this subject through a fair test science investigation of the permeability of different materials, and KS4 and KS5 will explore this subject through interactive group work and the use of our sustainable drainage model demonstrating how they sustainable drainage can help reduce surface water flooding, improve water quality and enhance biodiversity.
KS2 and KS3 will explore this subject through a fair test science investigation of the permeability of different materials, and KS4 and KS5 will explore this subject through interactive group work and the use of our sustainable drainage model demonstrating how they sustainable drainage can help reduce surface water flooding, improve water quality and enhance biodiversity.
Which curriculum topics do we cater for?
Physical Geography School Trip
Flooding Weather Rivers Water cycles
We will explore how the changing climate and a growing population are putting pressure on our natural water resources and how human predicted human demand will outstrip supply in the future, so come and find out what we are doing to ensure we are water resilient for the future and protect our beautiful natural world and all living things in it.
Human Geography School Trip
Urbanisation Natural resources
We will explore how a growing population and human caused climate change is putting pressure on our natural water resources and impacting the environment around us, both in the demand levels for water supply and the impact of rain and ground water in overloading our sewer systems.
Environmental Geography School Trip
Flooding Pollution
Click to read full text Pollution spills from storm overflows are quite rightly high on the public and political agenda. Our Slow the Flow workshop (as part of the tour visit) will explore how the sewer system works and why we have storm overflows. We will also explore the challenges to stopping their use and the action being taken to reduce their usage.
KS2 and KS3 will explore this subject through a fair test science investigation of the permeability of different materials, and KS4 and KS5 will explore this subject through interactive group work and the use of our sustainable drainage model demonstrating how they sustainable drainage can help reduce surface water flooding, improve water quality and enhance biodiversity.
Biology School Trip
Digestive System Ecology and environment Nutrition and digestion (KS3/4)
Water is a key compound for life on Earth. All living organisms need water. Some can survive in a dormant state without it for long periods of time, but all organisms will quickly or eventually die without it. The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, is the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the Earth's surface. It involves a series of processes including evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, and infiltration. We will look at how human use of water interacts with the natural water cycle.
Chemistry School Trip
States of Matter The particulate nature of matter (KS3/4)
Click to read full text During the visit we will follow the stages of wastewater treatment: filtration/screening and grit removal to remove large particles, sedimentation allowing tiny particles to settle out from still water, which produces sewage sludge and effluent (the liquid which remains on top) the sewage sludge is digested anaerobically by specific bacteria and the effluent passes through an aerobic process. We share that samples are taken at each stage of the process to analyse for levels of pH, conductivity and alkalinity, as well as physical properties such as its colour, this ascertains that each stage is functioning correctly to ensure that the final products (effluent and sludge/ fertiliser) are safe for humans and the environment.
Careers School Trip
During the visit to our operational site, we will highlight where curriculum learning links to the real life context of water treatment (Gatsby Benchmarks 4 and 6) Students will meet Southern Water employees from both engagement and operational teams (Gatsby Benchmark 5) and we will share information about our career pathways including apprenticeships (Gatsby Benchmark 2) Students will have opportunity to ask questions throughout the visit.
What size groups do we cater for?
We can cater for groups from 10-30 students (however if you have a class of 32 then still get in touch and we will see what we can do!)
On-site classroom facilities?
During the visit we will be based in our large education room. Please note there is nowhere on site to purchase food or drinks so we ask all visitors to bring a packed lunch with them. We can provide tea and coffee for adults and water for students.
Is there first aid on site?
Please note we require that you bring a first aider with you, whilst we have first aiders on site, it is the
responsibility of school staff to administer any first aid required and to provide a first aid kit.
responsibility of school staff to administer any first aid required and to provide a first aid kit.
Access for visitors with disabilities
As an operational site we have some limitations in the physical adjustments we can make to the tour route but are happy to discuss what is possible on a case by case need.
Visitors with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
Before each visit we have a telephone call with the lead teacher to chat through any individual pupil needs for consideration. In doing this, we can then adapt the tour visit to meet the needs of your group, for example; smaller group size and/ or increased adult support can be accommodated and we can adjust the tour length and workshop type to meet the needs of your students.
As an operational site we have some limitations in the physical adjustments we can make to the route but are happy to discuss what is possible on a case by case need.
In addition, we also offer a pre visit to your school or establishment to deliver our Wastewater Quest session to your students. This pre-visit, allows us to provide an insight into what the tour will be like through a virtual journey down the drain, it introduces key vocabulary, allows students to meet some of the tour team and for us to share and try on the PPE equipment they will need to wear.
Anything else?
Our Beyond the Drain educational tours at Peacehaven run on Thursdays during term time.
Who are Southern Water?
Southern Water are the primary water utility provider in the South East of England. We provide 2.6 million customers with their clean drinking water supply and take away and treat the wastewater for 4.7 million customers. Our operational area covers Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Currently, we offer educational tours at our wastewater treatment site in Peacehaven, East Sussex but will soon be opening sites in the Isle of Wight, Hampshire and hopefully in the not too distant future in Kent too.
Our purpose puts the wellbeing of our customers, the protection and improvement of our environment and the health of our communities at the heart of everything we do, so come along to meet us in person and find out how we strive to achieve this.
Teacher Checklist
Risk Assessments Inspection Visits Free Places for Teachers Free Places for Students Bursaries or Funded Places Available Resource Packs £50m PL Insurance
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