The Hackney Pirates is an innovative education project designed to supplement the school system. It was set up in 2010 by Teach First teacher Catriona Maclay, along with a founding group of educationalists, social entrepreneurs and creative professionals. We work with young people in Hackney in London who teachers have identified as needing extra attention to develop their core literacy skills and creative ability, by providing one-to-one attention in an unconventional learning environment. We believe young people progress fastest when given personalized attention from an adult who cares, and we utilise Hackney’s unparalleled concentration of creative professionals to ensure all local young people have access to this.

Happy Hollow Elementary is a fourth to sixth grade public school in north central Indiana with a current enrollment of 535 students. Due in part to our close proximity to Purdue University, Happy Hollow has an extremely diverse school population, bringing together students with a rich mixture of ethnic and cultural traditions that span the globe. Parent involvement throughout the school is high, and our school benefits greatly from the importance placed on education throughout our wider community.

Our school credo is the following: The staff of Happy Hollow School is committed to providing a safe and enriching school environment that will allow every child to experience success, promote within each child a positive self-image, recognize the uniqueness and needs of every child, and encourage acceptance of others.

Following the expedition will be the and 6th grade classes of Mr Doub, Mrs Mugg and Mrs King.

The Lawrence Middle School is in Falmouth, Massachusetts and serves grades 7 through 8. The teachers here provide a wide curriculum including music, advanced placement programs and pre-enginneering. Their mission is to challenge students intellectually, to develop essential skills and to learn from their mistakes. They encourage their students to grow academically and socially so they will become responsible, well informed, productive citizens.

Following the expedition will be Mr Zarra's 8th grade science classes.

Sidcot is a Quaker school situated in the south west of England. The schoolencourages children to make a difference in the world. Originally established in 1609, the school became a co-educational boarding school in 1808 and is one of the …..Quaker Schools in the UK. At present, over 540 pupils attend the school from nearly 30 different countries.

The learning ethos at Sidcot originates from our Quaker heritage and the pupils are frequently encouraged to ‘Live life adventurously’.

We are very excited to be involved with this outreach project and have included the general information pages about the Arctic expedition on our internal intranet site. Three classes have been selected to be our maincommunicators with the ship and they are two Year 10 classes, aged 14-15, and the U6 I.B. students, aged 17-18. Year 10 is currently studying the Heat Transfer topic in Physics and the I.B. group is exploring the Global Warming section in their course.

Sunny Brae Middle School is located in the rural community of Arcata, CA. They are the only true middle school (grades 6-8) in the Arcata area.

Following the expedition will be Mrs. Hobba's three 7th Grade science classes. Each class has a different name based on an endangered species: The Blue Sharks, the Red Pandas and the Green Sea Turtles. Mrs Hobba thinks global climate change is an extremely important concept for younger people to understand. She therefore tries to incorporate conservation, awareness of human impact on the environment, and ways her students can make a difference into her classes.

Te Aro School is a vibrant, inclusive, multicultural full primary school with approximately 220 children from over 36 countries and a strong community presence dating back to 1854. We cater for all children from Year 0 - 8 and provide a very wide and varied curriculum. Te Aro School children come from all over Wellington and a great deal of importance is placed on the partnership that exists between home and school. Parents are welcome and encouraged to join in with school and classroom activities.

Claire's class, Ruma Koromiko, will be following the expedition.