1000 Surrey kids jump into action
Take The Jump ambassador Diana Thornton, alongside four volunteers, recently helped around 1000 Year 6 pupils, from primary schools across Surrey, take their first steps in joyful climate action.
Their workshops (80 in total!) formed part of the 2025 Elmbridge Junior Citizen event, which took place at Sandown Racecourse in March and April. Take the Jump was represented alongside School Nurses, the Ambulance Service and the Transport Police - all there to help kids stay healthy and safe.
“If the planet’s not safe, we’re not safe.” said one of the pupils at the event. Diana felt you couldn’t find a better way to explain the connection between everyday safety and climate action.
“Eating green, flying and driving less, buying less - all these aren’t just nice things to do for the planet in the abstract,” she says. “They’re as vital to protecting each other as learning First Aid or Road Safety.”
Diana realised all too well that 1000 year 6 pupils weren’t going to be too impressed with a ‘Death by Powerpoint’ style presentation. So her team of volunteers came up with action-packed games to get the kids moving and thinking.. For example, the Six Shifts were presented on huge boards dotted around the room - and children had to get into pairs and run to the shift they felt would make the most difference.
During the workshops, it became clear that as climate education is still very ad hoc at primary level (and beyond), some of the children didn’t yet have a clear understanding of greenhouse gases and how they trap heat. So Diana got a volunteer to lie on the floor and pretend to be the earth, while their friends put blankets on them representing the main gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
“Children learn so much better when they can feel, move and imagine,” says Diana. ‘It was good to see them laughing and having fun as well as learning.’
After the workshops, children got to take home a Take the Jump leaflet featuring a Family Action Plan - personalised objectives for each family to sign up to and stick on the fridge.
“Inspiring children is the way to go - as they then spread the word to the whole household,” says Diana. “Talking to 1000 children and their teachers means hundreds of dinner-table conversations later. When we need to act collectively at scale and with huge urgency, this feels like a way to catalyse wider community change quickly,”
To find out how you could represent Take the Jump at a Junior Citizens event near you, contact Diana at diana@oxshottnetzero.org.uk
