Loughborough Grammar School prides itself on providing an education for its pupils that is diverse and challenging. As part of this, the school decided to introduce an innovative and interesting educational tool to allow their students to investigate, monitor and analyse weather conditions in their local area.

About Loughborough Grammar School

Studying climate change on our living, breathing planet is very complex and requires the right technological tools to see exactly how climate change is affecting us at a local level. Just as the microscope took science to a new level in the study of animal and plant cells over 400 years ago, weather stations will allow us to study the micro detail of the climate in our own local environment, while examining the weather on a Macro level across the UK.

Studying local weather is like looking at the health of a cell within an organism and by understanding local weather changes we will have a far better idea of the health of our planet and the overall effects of global warming. Using data collected and collated at source, students will be able to get a unique 'hands on' understanding of the processes and principles involved in the study of Climate and Meteorology. 

Giving students the knowledge to tackle and issue that is likely to become a dominant feature of their lives enables them to take some responsibility for the world they will grow up in, and gives them the power and knowledge to shape the future.

The Challenge

After researching the marketplace, Loughborough Grammar approached Skyview to provision a weather monitoring system. The key requirement was that the weather data could be accessed by all pupils over the school network, as well as from outside the school grounds.

Our Solution

As part of our commitment to provisioning the right system for every customer, Skyview's lead engineer Steve Southey carried out a full site visit to assess the individual requirements of the school. Skyview recommended a Davis Vantage Pro2, with full installation and a 5 year service and maintenance agreement.

The Weather Station sits within the Geography department, and is operated by Geographers in years 10 - 13. The data collected by the weather station is made available to everyone in the school over their Intranet site. This allows students to access and utilize the data in classroom and homework activities, and also share data with the wider community. 

Another fantastic benefit for the school is that their site is also populated with data from over 300 sites across the UK and Europe, allowing for easy comparison and research - an excellent tool for project work.

Key Benefits

The solution provided by Skyview has several key benefits for Loughborough Grammar School:
> Meeting many parts of the curriculum as well as Government green targets
> Provides a unique and fun 'live' hands-on learning experience
> Develops a range of skills, including data collection and analysis, and critical thinking
> Links with several core subjects for example Loughborough uses their data across the curriculum in maths, science, geography and ICT
> Ability to customise ClimeMET member's sites, for example Loughborough Grammar School has its logo, site map and even a live video feed on their personal site
> Easily upgradeable should you require measurement of additional parameters, such as solar or UV conditions.