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Citizenship at key stages 1 and 2 (Year 1-6)
Unit 06: Developing our school grounds
Section 3: What are our priorities for improving the school grounds?
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Objectives |
| Children should learn: |
- to generate and explore ideas
- to communicate their ideas to others
- about the costs and limitations of different plans
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Activities |
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Outcomes |
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Children: |
- Following a class or group discussion about the playground project, the children could be asked to represent their thoughts and ideas about change and development through a range of activities. Encourage the children to think about all users, including those with special needs, and remind them of any limitations of the school site. This could involve the children sketching, drawing or painting images of things they would like to see in the new playground. Older children could make a presentation about their ideas.
- The ideas generated in the discussion are narrowed down and focused on. The children agree a strategy for improving the school grounds, with priorities to take forward to the school grounds committee. Drawings or models (eg papier-mâché, clay) of the plan could be made for display purposes, with labels to show particular design features. These could be discussed with a visiting professional landscaper, surveyor or builder, who talks with the children about the cost of different ideas.
- The children could help organise and take part in different fundraising activities to pay for new equipment.
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- communicate and explain their views and the choices they make
- contribute to the decision-making process about the way forward for the playground
- understand that there are costs involved, and that sometimes compromises are needed
- reflect on ideas and suggest improvements
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Points to note |
- It is important for all children, staff and visitors to know the school's health and safety policy. The policy may need to be reviewed in the light of developments in the school grounds, and children should be involved with this review and in exploring health and safety in relation to playground equipment.
- A relevant professional, eg a landscape architect, surveyor or builder, could be invited to judge the drawings and models (following individual or group presentations by the children) to help the children consider how suitable/practical/realistic/safe their ideas are, and the subsequent modifications that may be necessary. Clear criteria could be established to enable children to begin to understand the complexities of planning permission and buildings regulations; these, in turn, should give them the opportunity to
re-evaluate and redesign their initial ideas if necessary.
- It will be important for the children to realise that sometimes things we plan cannot be realised, and that this can be disappointing for those involved.
- Link with geography: 1d, 3a in the key stage 1 programme of study; 1e, 2g, 3e in the key stage 2 programme of study; unit 8 'Improving the environment' in the scheme of work.
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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of
activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by
moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
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