To develop a range of physical skills pupils might not experience indoors and enrich their learning in geography, year 5 visited the Lookout Centre in Hyde Park for an exhilarating mapping and orienteering workshop. In spite of the driving rain, spirits weren’t dampened as pupils first explored a range of different types of maps, learnt the importance of having a key to ‘unlock’ the maps, then how to read the 8 compass points and determine where North is. Using a large-scale map of London, they explored key landmarks to locate the River Thames, Hyde Park and all groups were able to find the school by locating key local features such as Manor Park Station. In the centre garden, they identified coordinate points of some of its key features before finally receiving a map of Hyde Park with a series of checkpoints to find in their groups to complete the orienteering challenge. All groups worked well together to answer questions and take photos as evidence that they had correctly navigated to the targets set in the time allocated. It was impressive to see how secure their prior knowledge was and especially their correct use of geographical vocabulary – the Lookout team were very impressed. We are especially proud of our pupils with SEND who showed great resilience throughout in spite of the terrible weather. We also discovered that there are free discovery days for families which you might enjoy!
