Children from Grasmere School learning at the local stream. (Grasmere School via SWNS)
By James Connolly
An elementary school has come up with a novel idea to beat closing during the scorching heatwave — by taking children to their local stream for lessons.
Pupils swapped stuffy classrooms for a cool flowing stream after Grasmere Primary School took them down to their nearby stream in Cumbria this week.
The kids were given lessons in math, physics and water safety classes.
Principal Jo Goode said: "We can see the children's brains turning back on as soon as they're in the water.
"It's hard to learn in a hot classroom."
The school, which has 91 pupils, has taken every year group into the water while record June temperatures were broken twice in the UK this week.
Children have been adapting their usual lessons to the outdoors, with older pupils carrying out data collection for math projects by measuring the width of the stream and the drop from a nearby bridge.
(Grasmere School via SWNS)
Others have been learning about water resistance by experimenting with different body positions in the flowing water.
Meanwhile, youngsters have been taught the potentially life-saving techniques in deeper pools.
Goode, who has been principal at the school for 20 years, said: "The stream at the back of the school is lovely, but for most of the year, it's too cold to go in.
"When the weather is warm, diving in feels like the most natural thing in the world.
"It's such a great multi-sensory experience with the beautiful dappled sunlight.
"It's also really good for their welfare and mental health to be in the natural world.
"We're adapting the learning so it's much more hands-on."