A NORTHUMBERLAND teacher is one of hundreds asking a museum to change its sponsor to show their actions towards preventing climate change.

Meryl Batchelder, a year five teacher at Corbridge Middle school, is among a group 'boycotting' the Science Museum in London, which has a sponsorship deal with a company linked to the coalminer Adani.

She is one of 400 teachers who have signed an open letter and pledged not to take their students to a new exhibition at the museum asking them to drop Adani from their 'Energy Revolution' exhibition opening in 2023.

"Individual actions are not adequate to prompt the system change we desperately need," Meryl said.

"From government subsidising the oil industry or big corporations such as the big banks helping fund new oil exploration to or institutions such as the Science Museum happy to receive sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry – to decarbonise our politics, economy and society needs people to rise up and demand change."

"The Year fives I teach will be 87 years old in 2100 and will see biodiversity collapse as species become extinct. They are much more likely to be affected by flooding as storms become more intense and sea levels rise.

"I have found that young people find learning about environmental issues relevant and engaging.

"We need to ensure pupils understand their role in the world by bringing in global citizenship to outdoor learning which promotes a love of nature.

"Unless we give them the skills they need they will be ill-prepared for life on our warming planet."

Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘As the country’s most visited museum by school groups each year, we are proud to ignite the curiosity of hundreds of thousands of young people and their teachers, whose decisions about which galleries and exhibitions to visit we fully respect.

"We agree that climate change is the most urgent challenge facing humanity but we don’t agree with the argument from some who say we should sever ties with all energy companies with an association, direct or indirect, with fossil fuels.

"We believe the right approach is to engage and challenge companies and other partners to do more to make the global economy less carbon intensive.’