Geography Teaching Today

This section extends the content of Primary Geography Handbook Chapter 13

Using the School Grounds

by Angela Milner, Terry Jewson & Stephen Scoffham (pp.181-93)

Getting started

1. Walk around the school grounds noticing hazards
2. Write risk assessment (Download)
3. Plan route, questions to ask and activities (Download)
4. Prepare a map of the route

Children's issues and misconceptions

Some teachers may feel that using the school grounds is the easy way out as far as fieldwork is concerned. However:

'The school locality is a rich resource for geographical enquiry. It is highly accessible for fieldwork, can be studied in a great variety of ways and helps pupils to develop their sense of place'
(p.181)

Download Figure 2 'Questions to consider as you conduct an appraisal of your locality' (p.183). 

Using and making maps

• Equip children with a simple map of the school grounds.
• Show route from classroom around the grounds with footprints.
• Have pictorial representations of playground furniture etc. which offer the children fixed reference points.
• Give children a photo of one part of the school grounds. Get them to draw in what can be seen above, below, behind and in front of it.
• Devise a trail with pupils and discuss how it can be represented back in class. What kinds of information signs can be made to put outside along the route?
• Use simple plans of a part of the grounds to help locate a lost teddy.
• Use photographs and drawings to illustrate a display map showing what can be done in different places - e.g. sitting, playing in the sandpit, football games etc.
• Use 'Journey Sticks' to collect found objects from a walk around the grounds, use this as a reference to make simple linear maps of a walk. (See also Chapter 8 p.104 by Colin Bridge on Mapwork Skills)

Primary Framework opportunities

'The curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage recognises the importance of allowing pupils to explore their environment and learn from practical, first hand experience (DfEE/QCA, 2000).'
(p.181)

'The national curriculum specifies how pupils' understanding of geography can be developed through the study of localities as they progress through the primary school (DfEE/QCA, 1999). At key stage 1 pupils are required to undertake a study of their school locality.'
(p.181)

Activity ideas

Sample questions to ask:

• What would you see if you went outside the classroom?
• What do you like or dislike?
• What can we see? Smell? Hear? Feel?
• What is the weather like? (Are some places cooler/warmer; windier/calmer and why?)
• What plants can you see?
• Can you see any animals? What animals might we expect to see and why?
• How do we feel about this place (emotional mapping)?
• What do we like / what would we change?
• How could we do this?

21 activities to do in the school grounds can be found on p.184 of the Primary Geography Handbook.

Children's Voices

• What would you like to find out about the school grounds?
• Is there anything you would change in the school grounds?
• How can we do this?
• Record children's comments as they explore their designated area.
• Think how pupils' opinions can be heard in a wider context: letters to parents, local newspapers, presentations, school website and assemblies etc.
• How can pupils participate in changing their school grounds for the better? Lots of ideas can be found on the new Eco-schools website and through Landscapes for Learning.
• Think how work can be linked to the Sustainable Schools Agenda.
• Involve pupils in doing a risk assessment either using images to talk about dangers or through careful exploration of risks. Pupils can buddy each other and look out for potential dangers which they can then photograph or report verbally.

ICT opportunities

Children could use a digital camera or video recorder to record what they see, rather than pencil and clipboard, and a tape recorder to record sounds (also useful to record pupils' comments and ideas). Use the idea of 'Mywalk' in which responses to an environmental walk can be captured through images and sounds.

Assessment for learning

'Observing pupils, not only watching but also listening to them recount how they carried out their work and what they found out.'
(p.315)

'Asking pupils open ended questions that give them the opportunity to develop their own ideas.'
(p.315)

• Children can interview their peers using the original questions (see lesson plans).
• Use 'Target Buddies' to talk about work done.
• Ask pupils open ended questions that give them the opportunity to develop their own ideas.
• Observe pupils, not only watching but also listening to them recount how they carried out their work and what they found out.
• Pitch work at appropriate levels using level Descriptions to focus outcomes.

See page 315 for more.

Displays

On a large wall map of the school grounds, place the photographs of the different parts of the school grounds in the correct places with the children's drawings of what else they could see around that area. (See using and making maps bullet point 4). Add speech bubbles with children's responses noted by an adult.

Additional resources

• Tape recorder
• Digital camera/video recorder
• Photos of parts of the school ground
• Risk Assessment
• Sample lesson plans

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