Part2: St Catherine’s Catholic Primary School, Sheffield. Developed by Lynne Biggs as part of the Geography and the Global Dimension Project - a joint project run by DECSY and the Geographical Association

1. St Catherine’s Catholic Primary School Part 2
Geography & the Global Dimension Project
DECSY and the Geographical Association

2.  WALT: identify key features of a city
 Children mind mapped the similarities and differences
that they would expect to find when comparing our local
area and the city.
 Together on IWB we looked at the city centre using
google earth, and identified similarities and differences.
 Using www..... Together the class plotted the route that
we would follow on our visit to the city centre to identify
features of a city.
 We went on the city centre trip stopping at different points
to gather information and compare the city with our local
area.

3. Children looked at Google earth, to familiarise themselves with some of the
areas of town we would be visiting on our City Centre trip.

5. Before the City Centre trip, we discussed what we had seen whilst on the
local walk, and then thought about what we might see when we went into
the City Centre, and what the similarities and differences between the two
areas might be.
This is a
diagram to
collate
suggestions
from the
children of
what we
might see.

7.  WALT: locate destinations on a map.
 Identify the four C’s (City, County, Country, Continent) we explained
this by using a jigsaw.
 Children then used Atlas maps to locate England, South Yorkshire,
Sheffield. The children explored the different maps in the Atlas and
talked about what maps can show you.
 We then explained to the children what a continent is using the jigsaw
idea again.
 Using a world map children located the different continents and
added post it notes locating where their families were from.
 Showed images of St.Catherines using google earth and showed
images of Niza trust School in Zambia using google earth.
 Showed children how to use the I-pad App “maps”.
 Children were given three specific tasks:
 1.Locate Sheffield –search for their home
 2.Locate Zambia
 3. Locate the two school – Niza trust school, Choma and
St.Catherines, Sheffield

9. Children using post-
its to show their
friends where their
families come from.
Here is an image that
some of the children
found of Choma,
Zambia, when they
used the Ipad map
application.

10. For this session, the children were shown a photograph of one
of the Y4 classrooms that we visited during our visit to Niza
Trust school.
The children were given some independent thinking time, then
asked to share their first thoughts with a partner. Some
children then shared their first thoughts with the whole class.
The children then split into small groups, to think of questions
we could discuss. The whole class then voted on the question
they would like to answer. The question we then discussed
was “Why do people in Africa have less than we do?”
Some of the children’s first thoughts about the stimulus are
on the next slide.

11. “They don’t have
enough to help “The school
them to learn”- is very poor”-
Sandali Khaliq
“ I feel a bit
sorry for
them”- “They don’t
have enough
money”-
Ofofon
“They’ve just
got a paper
and pencil” -
“They’ve only got one
Juno
partner but we’ve got lots
of people to talk to”-
Hope

12. The aim of the lesson was to challenge some of the
children’s preconceptions about what life was like for
children at Niza Trust School.
We started off by showing some photos of the Zambia trip,
and some slides of the comments the children had made at
the start of our Zambia topic.
They were then shown different flipchart pages which
merged together an image of St Catherine’s, and an image
from Niza Trust. The children then had to identify the
similarities and differences between the pictures.

13. The children were able to identify that although the environment and
facilities are different, the children at Niza still go to school and learn,
are still cared for, and have fun with their friends like the children at our
school do.

14.  The aim of the lesson was to discuss the weather we have in
this country, and why it isn’t always the same.
 We introduced the concept of seasons; we explained that the
earth rotates around the sun, and that the changes in weather
we experience are caused by the Earth’s movement.
 The children then matched clothes and special
events/hobbies with different seasons.
 They then compared the seasons here and in Zambia, and
learnt that due to its position near equator, Zambia only has 3
seasons.
 This led to an explanation of how not every country has same
seasons.
 www.our-africa.com/zambia

15. Here are some comments from the Year 3
children, towards the end of the Zambia topic.

16. Our school has had a link with the Niza trust school in Choma,
Zambia, for the past three years. During that time communication
between the schools has been difficult. The Geography and the
Global Curriculum project has supported our children’s developed
understanding of similarities and differences between their own
lives and those of the children in Choma.
They were able to consider and compare where they live and the
amenities available to them and their families, in their local and
nearby city centre to those of a children who attend Niza Trust
school, in Choma.
The children were shocked when they saw photographs of Niza
Trust school. They could not understand the lack of facilities or
why the children were not dissatisfied with what was available to
them. In discussion, children at St Catherine’s thought that
because the children at Niza did not have what they have, they

17. This year, a lot of the time was spent on the physical
geography skills. Although children have developed an
understanding that there is no single story, next year we would
look to dedicating more time towards this through extended
P4C sessions and circle times.
Something that we would like to focus on more, is developing
a better understanding of lifestyles; talking with the children
about incomes, the value of money and the quality of life within
both countries.
Within the global dimension of diversity, we would like to focus
more on differences in culture, customs and traditions.

18. ICT
Google Earth
Google maps
I pad app Maps
Books:
Oxford Junior Atlas.
Websites:
www.map.bndf.co.uk map of Burngreave for the local area
walk
www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/SelfGuidedTourSheffieldCentre.pdf
map of city centre for the city centre trip and map work.
www.our-africa.com/zambia

19. How to involve the community:
• Open morning, showing parents the work the
children have taken part in over the course of the
project.
•Tourism role play; turn classroom into a travel
agents! Posters of Zambia made by children;
different groups explain different aspects of topic to
parents-
Eg. weather and climate, local amenities, etc.