Watchfield Primary School

I thought it best to structure things a little bit differently with the school. In conversations before I suggested making two maps of Watchfield, as today there might be between 70-80 children working on the same drawing. I felt I needed to dilute that intensity as it would quickly become over worked. The school suggested making a map of the school itself and I thought that was a good call.
So three maps in class made things more manageable.

I started with a short slide introduction showing different kinds of maps to give pupils new perspectives on what maps might be about! Then we started work adding places, events and people to the village, and it is at this point in some schools I have run project workshops where sometimes the class teacher sees it as an opportunity to mark books at the back of the class, and views this as time gained while someone else runs the lesson. 

I must stress that that was so far from the truth at Watchfield School all the teachers engaged so fully and worked with their pupils on their hands and knees with them as friends working along side and amongst them. This really added validity to what I was trying to achieve.



all the teachers really engaged and worked alongside their pupils

some instinctively work in small groups other want to work on their own

 One class we exchanged stories about Watchfield with pupils happy to share local history they knew, while others shared embarrassing episodes and where they happened. It was good to hear what people felt was important about the area they live.



creating a map of the school

 
So moving onto the map of the school itself; this seemed to develop very quickly compared to the village map. I guess things are much smaller and more familiar easier to locate and indicate what happens where. My final class in the afternoon had a long unbroken work session and we decided to walk around the school making notes and collecting data for our map. My particular group wandered out onto school field which backs onto a the allotments. We saw a scare crow and had a conversation with allotment owners about what they grew and the tools they were carrying. We also found a tennis ball under the hedge.



working on the map of the school

Having felt a little apprehensive before my visit to the school when we started working all my fears left me and I really enjoyed working together. The strategy a having a second village map was a wise one and with the youngest classes next time I will have some control over the quality of the final piece. Next week we will have a classroom assistant who has lived in the village for many years and we need her valuable local knowledge.



many pupils have indicated their routes to school