Real world challenges: Real world revision

Late April is a strange time in primary schools. SATs often change so much. Year 6 teachers are running countdown clocks in their heads, Year 2 teachers are fielding questions from anxious parents, and somewhere in the middle of all that, Earth Day lands on 22 April and asks everyone to stop and pay attention to our shared planet.

This year, with war impacting so many families, an energy crisis, and division / uncertainty heavy on our hearts - it can be even harder to find hope. Earth Day 2026 is called “Our Power, Our Planet” and offers a chance for children (and adults) to reclaim agency and action, and keep hope and peace alive. And this isn’t just a PSHE and mental health ‘nice’ thing to do.

Here's the thing: the skills SATs actually test aren't separate from the kind of thinking Earth Day asks children to do. Reading comprehension in the KS2 tests relies heavily on non-fiction texts, exactly the kind of writing you find in science journalism, environmental reports and data-driven news stories. The maths papers are full of percentages, graphs and statistics. Climate data, renewable energy figures, species population charts: these aren't soft alternatives to exam practice, they're exam practice with a reason behind them.

For Y6 teachers feeling the squeeze, Hamilton's Maths Revision Menu A and Menu B give you the structured revision framework, while the UKS2 Climate Change mini-topic and Earth Matters topic provide the real-world content that can sit alongside it. The two aren't in competition.

For classes not in SATs year, the week around 22 April is a genuinely good moment to go broader. KS1 has a dedicated Earth Day block covering recycling and green environments, and Oceans and Seas opens that out further if you have more time. Lower KS2 can go deep with Mountains, Rivers and Coasts, which covers physical geography, ecosystems and human impact across as many sessions as you can give it.

Teachers/SLT - Please check out organisations like CAPE and Oxfam for further resources for PD - especially those considering how to bring Climate Justice topics in line with their school values, while managing issues that can be positioned as controversial or political.

Children who are old enough to sit a test are old enough to know the planet is changing. Earth Day doesn't have to be a detour from serious learning; it can be the reason the learning matters.

If you're looking for a fresh engagement hook for Y6 English revision, our Harry Potter-themed revision plans are worth a look. With the new HBO series on the way, the books are getting a lot of attention again, and children who might otherwise switch off during revision may find a familiar world helps them focus.