In this paper, primary school students' and pre-service teachers' ideas of seasonal change are investigated. The research was carried out in nine primary schools in Athens and in the Primary Education Department of the University of Athens. Written reports were used for gathering data while students also had the opportunity to support their answers with drawings. The results showed the following. (1) Pre-service teachers address notions which involve the movement of the Sun and/or the Earth, while primary school students address human centred, tautological and phenomenological notions as well. (2) Both primary school students and pre-service teachers mainly adopt two schemes of explanation: alterations in the distance between the Sun and the Earth and alterations in the Earth--Sun relative orientation/illumination.