Our question this half term is “What can I do to help someone who is struggling in my community?” Children will be exploring this through the Catholic Social Teaching lens of Option for the Poor and Vulnerable across the curriculum.

In Geography, we will be geographers, investigating the topic “Why is our world wonderful?” We will build on our prior learning to deepen our geographer skills, including: exploring different environments; identifying human and physical features; using maps, globes and aerial photographs; comparing places and talk about similarities and differences; learning new geographical vocabulary and thinking about how people live in different parts of the world.

We will explore the local area in comparison to the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. Within our learning children will be encouraged to ask questions about various places; use maps and globes to discover the location of landmarks; observe and describe environments; compare different parts of the world; share their ideas and opinions with their classmates and will conduct fieldwork to further look at habitats and understand their local area in more depth.

Through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, we will reflect on how showing love to those who have less than we do is a perfect example of Jesus’ love for us and the sacrifices he made for our sins. Children will understand that everyone is loved by God and deserves dignity and care and that as a community we are called to notice those in need and respond with kindness.

At the end of this half term, children will bring their learning together to explain how our world is wonderful, what makes our local area so special and how we can look after God’s world and appreciate the diversity of people and places.

Throughout our study of the world, children will be encouraged to share their own ideas, ask insightful questions and make connections to their own lives and local area- developing curious minds and embedding their ‘golden nuggets’ of knowledge in their long-term memories.