Getting to know your local area
One very real challenge for many teachers is their lack of familiarity with the local area. In the quote below Chris Beverley of The Bawburgh School also identifies it as an issue for many of the children in her Year 5 and 6 group.
'The Bawburgh maps proved to be quite a challenge for the children as most do not live in Bawburgh and they suddenly realised that they knew very little about the village. We began by walking around Bawburgh and taking pictures of some buildings. Back at school the children used the internet to carry out research on some of the older buildings. The local free newspaper proved to be an invaluable source of information. The children produced their maps and added information about various buildings using hotspots. The children became adept at inserting pictures and adding text.'
Find out more about the Bawburgh Village Study.
Draw a sketch map and write a short account of your schools' local area. Add to your map the approximate length and width of the area, any sites you already study and any that are unsafe. How would you define your local area?
Gaining familiarity with your local area
In the Bawburgh village study linked to above Chris Beverley offers you some suggestions to illustrate how she tackled the problem with her class but I'd also like to offer a few of my own. These are ideas that I might follow-up when trying to gain familiarity with an area that is new to me. Think which of them might be useful to you:
- Find an aerial view of the locality using an internet mapping service, for example Google Maps, Bing Maps or Quikmaps (which makes use of Google Maps) and pick out the main features, i.e. road patterns, rivers, rail lines, the location of the school, shops etc.
- Display the map on an IWB in your classroom and involve children in a discussion about their local area.
- Talk to members of staff who live locally - learning assistants usually live in the area. If possible involve them in the discussion when using the aerial image with pupils.
- Plan a route around the area and take digital images of the most important features. Think about how many different routes you could choose to get to a particular location. Which offers the most interest?
Give yourself the goal of familiarising yourself with the local area. Decide what you will do and when.
Resources you will need
Another essential task is to build up your resource bank for teaching about the local area. You will need:
Maps
- write-on/wipe-off maps,
- pictorial map, teacher prepared map, street map(s), large scale O.S. Maps, small scale O.S. maps, maps of locality, region,
- British Isles, Europe, World
State funded schools can obtain printed copies of larger scale Ordnance Survey maps from their local authority (LA) planning department. Further information about obtaining Ordnance Survey maps can be found at their website.
Photographs
- Sets of digital photographs for use on IWB's and/or A4 and A3 laminated prints
- See the Geograph website for images of the UK.
Collections
- postcards
- brochures/leaflets - on places, trails etc.
- maps - variety of purposes/styles
- newspaper articles
What else can you do?
- Look at geography resource catalogues to find out what map based resources are available for your local area (such as TTS, Wildgoose)
- Contact your the planning department in your local authority (LA) to find out how to obtain copies of maps (there may be a department called Map Bank). Also check to see if the LA makes maps available online. (There should be an Ordnance Survey Liaison Officer - try to talk to them).
- Take photographs in your local area. Explore the Geograph website and find out what has been added for your local area. You might want to work on a project with your class where you add additional images to the site.
- Visit your local Tourist Information office and collect free brochures and map leaflets. Build up your collection of local resources.
Decide on your priorities and remember to record your ideas.
The next four sessions outline the main teaching and learning activities for a unit of work called 'Mapping our feelings about the school and grounds'.
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