To think this is not an activity in primary school

Well we can protest until we are blue in the face it won't change the earths natural cycle we know of 5 extinction events between 50 - 135 million years apart the last one was 65 million years ago we are due another and nothing we do will stop it from happening .

You're being completely unreasonable.
Climate change is a fact, not a political opinion. Raising awareness with primary school children is important because it's their generation that's really going to be affected by it.
Im also pretty sure no school is going to take children out on a protest.
Maybe try talking to the school to clarify exactly what the class is covering.
Id also suggest familiarising yourself with actual facts about climate change and the very real danger it poses.

As others have said, it's great that they are teaching them about climate change, but doing so in a way that necessitates the purchase of a new T-shirt is unbelievably shit! And grossly unfair on low income families.

In what way?

It was said that we wouldn't even be alive by now due to holes in the ozone layer. And bear in mind this was before a lot of tech and AI etc

Activism is quite different to protesting.

OP, will you be talking to the teacher to find out exactly what form the lesson took?

It's an important activity in primary. We didn't listen to warnings but maybe they will? We had a whole day where I teach dedicated to climate change, they had activists in, designed and planned ways around school, some volunteered to work on a school pond, some used recycled clothes and fabric to do a fashion show - it was great .

Also, the irony of wasting clothing to protest about harming the environment.
Does the teacher really think it is sensible to waste 30 t-shirts???

Did it take the form of designing t shirts for a protest?

Children should absolutely be made aware of environmental issues, and id even go as far to say political awareness ans activism (which can take MANY forms and doesnt necessarily mean blocking motorways or Dover port).

Honestly, the only people I could imagine taking issue with this is climate change deniers/conspiracy theorists - which is exactly the reason why the science should be taught as early as primary school.

Next we'll hear schools shouldn't be teaching geography with globes in case flat earther wing nuts get their feelings hurt.

I remember doing save the planet type posters in the early 90s. It was about acid rain and ozone layer and fossil fuels. It's hardly activism, it was educational

I think this is excellent cross-curricular teaching and learning. Engaging due to the process of the learning taking place (t-shirt design) and thought-provoking due to climate change being an incredibly important and relevant topic. Cross-curricular as it’s geographical, English for any emotive and persuasive language, DT, art, PSHE and citizenship.

its not like they’re going on an actual protest!!!! Therefore this is not political. It informs of the peoples’ right to protest against a government or company that does not align with their morals or the greater good of society.

They’re being taught that the language and designs you use to put across your point effectively, are important.

Well done to this teacher and this school. I think this is awesome.

Climate change isn’t a political opinion, it’s a scientific fact.

I was at primary school in the early 00s and it was all about save the rainforest then. This is nothing new.

I’d be more concerned they are buying new t shirts that they may never use again -adding to the climate problem! poster would have been fine!

If the school cared so much about the environment, parents wouldn’t have needed to buy a t-shirt that’s probably going to get chucked away. Especially after they’d had to drive to the supermarket to buy it. Or even worse, had to get it delivered.

indoctrinating little kids is ridiculous. Schools, teachers, need to keep politics as far from the classroom as is humanly possible.

Are you in favour of climate change?

otherwise I don’t see the problem

I'd be more peed off at having to provide a t shirt that is then basically wasted! We used to do things like this, but the teacher would give us paper/card cut into t shirt shapes and then we would do our design on it.

I learnt about WWII and the holocaust in primary school, in history.
Climate change is geography.
So many issues are avoided at the moment by incorrectly labelling them as ‘politics’. Taxation levels are politics. Climate change and genocide are world events which will impact our kids generation and should be taught in an age appropriate manner.
It’s up to us as adults to see the fuller, more frightening picture, and take action, rather than ongoing avoidance.

You're ridiculous

YABU. However requiring white t shirt which many kids might not have so would involve and extra purchase of fast fashion items is pretty wild. Climate awareness isn’t political. It’s fact.

The climate, water cycles etc are a big part of what they learn in primary school. I mean a poster would probably have done the job. But unless you are a climate change denyer, I can't comprehend why you would give this a second thought?

I think you missed too much school OP.

I think you're being unreasonable for relying on a primary school child's account of events without actually checking with a member of staff or seeing the t-shirts

🙄

I wouldn’t be upset about the T shirt but I would be at any suggestion that they are to be worn on a protest. So I would be making clear it clear to the school that my child would not be attending any protest.
while I was in the school I would be talking to the teacher about the content of the lesson on climate change to ensure that it was balanced, accurate and not full of doom and gloom. Children do not need to be made anxious because their teacher pushing their own particular stance
i would also have my own discussions with my child on climate change to ensure that they received a range of perspectives.

If that's not the time or the place, when exactly is? Climate and weather fall under geography, so a geography lesson is exactly the place for children to be learning about the climate crisis, surely?

I really don't see the problem, it's not like they were sent out canvassing for the Green Party.