World Around Us

Children are naturally curious about the world around them. The purpose of The World Around Us is to provide children with the opportunities to:

• express and share their thoughts and ideas about the world;
• become aware of themselves and their place in the world, as well as other places, cultures and the environment;

The World Around Us (WAU) consists of three contributory elements: Geography, History, and Science and Technology.

It is organised into four interrelated strands:

• Interdependence,
• Place
• Movement and Energy
• Change Over Time

The purpose of these four strands is to facilitate connections in the learning between Geography, History and Science and Technology.

In St. Columba’s we realise the value of connecting learning for our pupils. We have therefore developed a topic based approach to the World Around Us. We choose topics that enthuse, inspire and motivate children to learn. Foundation stage pupils have the opportunity to learn about the world around them through topics such as The Farm, The Jungle, Spider & Bats, The Woodlands, Fairy Tales and Toys.

Our KS1 pupils have thoroughly enjoyed exploring topics such as Pirates, Dinosaurs, Castles and Minibeasts whilst our KS2 pupils have chosen to study The Famine, Water, Farm to Fork, The Vikings and the Titanic to name but a few.

As always we aim to enhance learning with enrichment activities such as trips and expert talks/ visits. Our pupils have been on a recent trip to Ranfurly House as part of the Famine topic. They visited Moy Park and Tesco’s as part of the Eat Happy project to increase their understanding and appreciation of the Farm to Fork topic. Our KS1 pupils enjoy visiting Carrickfergus Castle and Armagh Planetarium to enhance their understanding of the Castles and Space topics. We are lucky to have Derrynoid Forest on our doorstep and we avail of all the teaching opportunities that this presents. Our P1 and P2 pupils love going on a Teddy Bears’ Picnic to the forest as part of the Woodland topic.

Through the World Around Us as with all curricular areas, we aim to teach Thinking Skills and Personal capabilities. The curriculum emphasises the development of pupils’ skills and capabilities for lifelong learning and participating in society. By engaging pupils in active learning contexts across all areas of the curriculum, teachers can develop pupils’:

• personal and interpersonal skills;
• capabilities and dispositions; and
• ability to think both creatively and critically.