Education at NIW

Our Education Department is staffed by qualified personnel and offers, free of charge, programmes tailored to the enriched curriculum.

You can visit us at the following venues :

EDUCATION CENTRES

Silent Valley, Co. Down (KS 1-3) (Free entry to park)

• Visits are on alternative Wednesdays (10:15am to 2pm - March to November)
• Limited to maximum 40 students

Visits include two outdoor experience sessions for pupils :

• Explore the importance of the Valley in the history of the local area (Core session)
• Select one of our topics on biodiversity
  • flora and fauna
  • rocks and soils
  • habitats
  • interdependence

Using practical activities investigate why it is important to protect this diverse habitat.

Heritage Wastewater Centre, Belfast (KS 2 & 3)

• Visits are on alternative Wednesdays (all year round)
• Limited to maximum 30 students

Learn about the sights and smells of the Belfast sewerage system past and present. Discover how sewage is cleaned and investigate how pollution impacts on our natural environment.

Short tour supported by investigative practical activities.

WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS

Various locations (KS 2 & 3, tertiary or adult groups)

At arranged educational visits to selected works around NI learn about the water and wastewater treatment processes. These visits are limited to one per month on a Tuesday. Maximum of 30 people.

• Every day more that 100 water treatment works in NI produce approximately 625 million litres of high quality drinking water.
• Each year NIW collects, treats and safely disposes of around 134 million cubic metres of wastewater from 1060 treatment works. Approximately 83% of households in NI are served by the public sewerage system.  

or we can visit you :

CLASSROOMS

Classroom visits (KS2 - All year round)

Our Water Education Team can visit you on Tuesdays or alternative Thursdays. The following curriculum based topics are available for selected year groups or Eco-Committees

• Water Conservation
• Water for Health
• The Water Cycle

We support schools on the Eco Schools Programme and are trained Eco-School Assessors.

Water audits of schools should be available from 2009.

THE WATERBUS

NIW's Waterbus "The Wonderful World of Water" visits Primary Schools on Mondays and alternative Thursdays (KS 1 & 2)

This double decker mobile classroom travels throughout NI and can accommodate up to 17 pupils at a time (Maximum 4 sessions per visit).

Pupils learn by presentation and demonstrations about the water cycle, water for health, water conservation, water and wastewater treatment.

Meet Bob and Flo with Soggy the dog as you watch our DVD.