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Geography Resources from Stallingborough Primary

This is part of Geography on The Lighthouse

These resources were created by teaching staff at Stallingborough Primary School. They have been converted for the Internet into Flash.

The imaginary Scottish Island - Isle of Struay

Nursery Rhyme Book

Trip to Cleethorpes

The Context for the Activities

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Year 2 Geography - an imaginary Scottish Island.
As part of the pupil's work in geography the class had read the story of Katie Morag and the Isle of Struay. The teacher, Angela Raynes, then created a talking book using Clicker 4 to revisit some of the events mentioned in the story.

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Year 2 ICT - The children really enjoyed using the talking book and were given the opportunity to develop their own ICT skills by creating their own talking book. They decided to create a nursery rhyme book for the Reception class and worked in pairs on their own page typing in the nursery rhyme and selecting an appropriate picture. These pages were then saved into a folder to create a talking book. The Year two children then showed the Reception pupils how to open and read the talking nursery rhyme book.

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The Year 3 /4 class were going on a visit to Cleethorpes. The teacher, Isabel George, created a talking book containing pictures and information on Cleethorpes which the children initially read, and after the visit, were asked to contribute to.

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Geography Network

This is part of Geography on The Lighthouse

 

Elliston Junior
Humberston Cloverfields
St Joseph's RC Primary
Queen Mary Avenue Infants
Elliston Juniors
North Cleethorpes
Humberston Cloverfields
Humberston
Saint Joseph ’s RC Primary
North Cleethorpes

Queen Mary Avenue Infants
North Cleethorpes
Laceby Stanford
Scartho Junior
Strand Juniors
Date: 21/06/07
This was the first year of the
Geography Network.
Laceby Stanford
Laceby
Scartho Juniors
Scartho
Strand Juniors
Grimsby
 

Focus and Success Criteria

Network focus and structure
In celebrating our geographical diverse catchment areas and unique communities we united to strengthen the good learning that takes place in our schools. This network has empowered staff, adults and children alike to use Geography as a vehicle to raise standards in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT. Learning was transferred between schools and reawakened pupils sense of place, with staff and pupils communicating via our network.

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Pupil Learning Focus
Each school identified its own strengths and weakness in the curriculum. These were then compared and discussed to identify common elements and common ground. Two real weaknesses were the transference of skills through cross-curricular work and the children’s inability to work independently. All the schools in the network agreed that they wished to pursue the themes of excellence and enjoyment, and make the curriculum more enjoyable, as advocated in ‘Every Child Matters’.

We used Geography to raise standards in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT, whilst ensuring pupils gained key skills in Geography through excellence and enjoyment. In both Key Stages pupils used ICT to communicate with the children in other schools. Children developed Geography mapping skills and maths problem solving. We saw a greater enthusiasm for the learning, especially Geography and raised attainment in Literacy, Numeracy and ICT.

Success Criteria
The Geography co-ordinators from each school devised an interactive base line assessment. This assessed the key skills in Geography, with a focus on mapping. We used Accelerated Learning approaches, VAK and 5R’s to ensure pupils were assessed through observations and discussions with the children.

At the end of the project all children were re-assessed to measure progress.

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Learning Activities and Exchange Days

Learning Activities
Geography and Numeracy co-ordinators created a pack of lessons to deliver the key skills in Geography, ICT, Maths and Literacy.

P.E. D.T. and Art were also used as vehicles for learning. These lessons were taught in preparation for Geography exchange days.

Activities included

  • Letter writing
  • E-mailing
  • Model making
  • Mapping activities
  • Making plans of the school and classroom

Geography Exchange Days
Each school was matched with a school from a different geographical area. Pupils were paired with a friend from their partner school. In preparation for the day, each pupil created plans of their classroom showing seating arrangements. On the day their partner used these maps to locate their friend.

Leading up to the exchange days the pupils got to know each other through letters and emails, so they were all excited when they finally met their friend. One aspect of the project that exceeded our expectations was the development of social and emotional literacy.

On the day the pupils participated in treasure hunts and maths trails. This provided an excellent opportunity to put their newly acquired learning into practice.

After the first visit the children and staff were buzzing and couldn’t wait for the return visit!

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Success of the Project

Successes of the Project
Pupil Learning

  • Enthusiasm and motivation of the pupils.
  • Improvement of pupil’s Literacy, Numeracy and ICT skills.
  • A tremendous impact on the children’s level of attainment in Geography (see appendix).
  • Development of social skills and emotional literacy.

Adult Learning

  • Development of middle management and leadership skills.
  • Development of ICT skills.
  • Greater professional knowledge pool across the schools.
  • Improved teaching and learning.

School Wide Learning

  • Improved schemes of work in Geography and Maths
  • Dissemination of good practice in all classes.
  • Sense of pride in community.

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Celebration of Achievements

Celebration of Achievements
At the end of the first year of the project two celebration days were held. The staff and pupils came together to share a picnic, meet up with their friends and take part in social games.

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Results
Key Stage 1
The initial assessment indicated that 62% of pupils were working at W or level 1 with mapping skills. At the end only 13% remained at level 1 and all the pupils at W had achieved a level. 50% of the children achieved level 2 and 86% achieved level 2 or above at the end of the project.

Three weaker areas at the beginning of the project symbols, scale and perspective showed good improvement. In the area of symbols 100% of pupils started the project at W or level 1 whilst at the end only 24% remained at level 1 the rest were above, including 36% at level 3. Scale was also assessed with all pupils achieving W or level 1 in the baseline with 96% achieving level 2 at the end. Although fewer children completed the perspective area this was initially assessed as 100% of pupils at level 1 of these 57% achieved level 2, a difficult concept for year 2.

Key Stage 2
The initial assessment at KS2 showed us that in regard to mapping skills 74% of the pupils were below level 3 whereas at the end of the project only 42% remained below level 3. The children achieving level 3 at the beginning of the project stood at 25% this rose to 49% by the end. One particular area, symbols had a baseline of 54% of pupils achieving level 1- this dropped to 14%, showing a huge increase in the understanding in this area.

In some aspects the assessment activities didn’t allow for pupils to show progress e.g. the style task had too few features to identify on the photograph thus making it difficult to demonstrate increased skill. The scale task required too high an order of skill so pupils could not demonstrate a growing awareness of scale.

Pupil Self evaluation form
For both key stages a pupil self evaluation form was completed using smiley faces. Very few children were able to identify an activity they didn’t like with different activities being sited as particular favourites. Those scoring the highest ratings for enjoyment were visiting another school, meeting your pen pal and orienteering closely followed by writing letters, following and drawing a map and completing the maths trail.

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Geography on The Lighthouse

Loc8 YHGfL Loc8 A YHGfL project where you can access detailed maps and aerial photos of the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

Humberside from the Air - Aerial photos from around the region of Humberside. Over 100 copyright free photos.

The Discovery Centre - A virtual representation of the Discovery Centre in Cleethorpes consisting of images and text about animals, insects and the beach

The Geography Network - Review of the first year (2007)
The following Schools took part:
Elliston Juniors
Humberston Cloverfields
Saint Joseph ’s RC Primary
Queen Mary Avenue Infants
Laceby Stanford
Scartho Juniors
Strand Juniors

Stallingborough Primary School have produced Geography resources for Years 2, 3 and 4 (and a nursery rhyme collection)
Click here for them

 
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Humberside from the Air

The following are aerial photos taken of the area of Humberside in 1996. These photos are copyright free. Places are in alphabetical order. Please click on the tabs.

Use the back button to get back to this page from the photos