A child-led introduction to the North Frisian island of Sylt, Germany, suitable to support study of a European location at KS2.
Helen: Hello, my name is Helen. I am 11 years old. I live in Rantum on Sylt.
Helen - TRANSLATED: And down there, is where I live. Sylt is the biggest German North Sea island, with an area of 99 square kilometres. There are 11 villages on Sylt, and one town called Westerland. Rantum, where I live, is one of the narrowest parts of the island.
My pets are chickens. My guitar teacher is called Oliver, and he also teaches my brother piano. I started when I was six years old. I couldn't even write then, and now I have been playing for four years.
I was born here on Sylt, and I have lived here my whole life. I live here with my brother and my parents.
Sylt has a population of 21,500. It is just 38.5 kilometres long from north to south. And east to west, it is between 350 and 12,600 metres wide. A third of the island is covered with dunes. The rest is covered with heathland and marsh.
In Sylt, the wind blows mainly from the West. There are lots of thatched houses on Sylt. In the past, reeds grown on the island were used to make their roofs.
In winter, far fewer people live on Sylt. Lots of people only come in the summer to spend time in their summer houses. Over 800,000 people a year come here on holiday.
Since the 1st June 1927, Sylt has been connected to the German mainland via the Hindenburg dam. To stop Sylt shrinking, sometimes a ship anchors off the coast, sucks up the sand from the sea bed and squirts it back onto the beach.
The Wadden Sea is a nature reserve on the more protected east coast of Sylt. I am here with my friends, because we are really interested in the Wadden Sea, and we are young Wadden Sea guides. Kirsten says you can only protect and conserve what you know about, which means, that if we really get to know the Wadden Sea, then we'll know how best to take care of it.
Kirsten – TRANSLATED: This is sponge. Like Spongebob. It is a native sponge of the North Sea. And when the mussel boats dredge the mussels from the sea, they destroy the sponges and everything else on the seabed.
Helen - TRANSLATED: Kirsten has shown us all the different plants and animals on the Wadden Sea. Up to two million tiny plants and organisms can live in one square metre of the Wadden seabed.
Svea, Samira, and I have learnt a lot about the ebb and flow of the tides. We know that the tide goes in and out, or ebbs and flows, because the earth is spinning. And when you spin around, you are forced away from each other. The same thing happens to the water on the earth when the earth spins. There are two high tides and two low tides every 24 hours.
Because of the wind, the weather changes very quickly and it often doesn't stay bad for long. Sylt is an extreme place to live in and we love it!
Video summary
Download/print a transcript of the video.
Sylt is an island very close to Germany and Denmark.
Connected by the Hindenburg causeway to the mainland, this 30km long island is only a few hundred metres across at its thinnest point. It is covered in dunes and heathland, and battered by the strong westerly winds from the North Sea.
Its west coast is constantly subjected to coastal erosion; but sheltered on the east, where the Wadden Sea lies, is a world heritage site.
11-year-old Helen explains what life is like on the island and how the impact of tourism and migration has changed Sylt's geography.
Helen and her friends show us the Wadden Sea and the important conservation work being undertaken there.
Teacher Notes
Before watching this clip, pupils could locate Sylt on a map and consider any conclusions that could be drawn from its location such as the climate, population and travel.
They could find the definition of topic-specific vocabulary such as dam, causeway, heathland and dunes and find pictures of each of these from Sylt or a Scottish island.
They could also plot these features onto a map of the island. Pupils could also explore what it is to like on an island like Sylt.
They could consider how daily tasks such as going to school, going shopping or playing outdoors might differ from on the mainland.
They could consider why people tend to only live on the island during the summer.
Would pupils like to live on an island like Sylt? They could make a tourist leaflet or travel brochure entry to encourage people to visit this island.
This film is relevant for teaching Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 in England and Northern Ireland, Progression Step 3 in Wales and 3rd Level (Scotland). The National Curriculum for Geography at Key Stage 2 emphasises study of a European location and making comparisons with a location in the United Kingdom.
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