A primary school in Ham celebrated the launch of its very own weather station last week (March 15).

St Richard’s CE Primary School won a grant from the British Science Association and support from businesses including Richmond Travel Planning Advisers for the project, which eventually came to fruition at the end of last week.

Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith attended the opening of the weather station, and was joined by deputy Mayor Councillor Mona Adam, plus representatives from the Metropolitan police and Sustrans, a sustainable transport charity who also supported the project.

The weather station is placed on the school grounds and will monitor air quality and the local atmosphere — concerns over pollution and climate change were central to the school's efforts to install the station.

In a statement following the launch, a spokesperson for St Richard's described how the weather station would work in practice: "The Vantage Vue weather station was installed above a Stevenson Screen which houses our Air Quality Monitor. This shows the quality of the air on a traffic light system, with green being good.

"We have 3 flagpoles alongside the weather station and our weather club read the monitor and raise the appropriate flag each morning, letting the local residents see the quality of that day’s air."

The statement said that the launch of the weather station only marked the beginning of a depper engagement from students and teachers alike with the environment:

"We may be a little school, but we have big aspirations!

"Our aim now is to install a solar panel onto the Stevenson Screen so that the Air Quality Monitor can record for longer and also to invest in a wireless IP so that we can broadcast our findings on our website."