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PROJECT PUTS GEOGRAPHY ON MAP

By Lori Little - Monday, May 12, 2008
NINE Island primary schools are leading a national scheme to improve children’s understanding of geography and history.
Primaries in the Bay Link Cluster have spent three months working on a project to develop teachers’ knowledge and skills of the subjects.
Helen O’Donoghue, of the organisation Fieldwork Education that led the training, said the subjects had been neglected in the national curriculum and the objective was to present them to children from a global perspective, developing a greater understanding of their relationship to the wider world and how that impacts on their future.
Shanklin Primary School’s geography leader, Jenna Powell, said: “All our focus is on literacy, numeracy and ICT at the moment. I wouldn’t have asked for any geography training because geography seems to have been pushed down in priority.
“So it was great to have the opportunity to do some focused geography training and develop some teaching skills that will helps us to help our children look at where we are as a country in relation to other countries in the world.”
Heather Grimes, of Broadlea Primary, added: “Geography is not just mapping and looking at your area. It is much more about a global approach and taking on a more global responsibility. I now feel quite passionately about this.”
The other primaries involved were Bembridge, St Helens, Brading, Newchurch, Sandown, Gatten and Lake and St John’s.
The work will help complete a pilot Training Development Agency programme.