Welcome to the Teacher’s Desk which, for once, is looking pretty tidy!

In the drawers of our desk we have a host of resources designed to help you incorporate quarrying themes into key stages 1 to 4 of the national curriculum for science, geography and citizenship.

Some of the units link back into specific areas of the Virtual Quarry so you may find it helpful to take your class on an interactive whiteboard tour. We can also help you to organise visits to real quarries.

Supporting the lesson plans, we have a series of teacher briefings to help you.

These consist of a general introduction to the quarrying industry and more specific guides on its relevance to subjects such as wildlife. From these, you may develop your own ideas for working with your local quarrying company.

We have more than 20 comprehensive units.

Developed against the schemes of work recommended by Department for Education and Skills. Each has been written by a qualified teacher and vetted by a group of other teachers.

We asked primary school teacher Kate MacRae to provide feedback on how she used the virtual quarry website with her Year 5 students at Water Orton Primary School.

This short video includes her comments on using virtual quarry in the classroom and to support a local quarry visit.

Photographs have been provided to support the Virtual Quarry.

Teachers can choose to view and download images.