Geography Adventure at Christ’s Hospital for London Children

Fun, creative and interactive workshops were organised by the Geography team at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham.

The first workshop covered emotional mapping in three different locations around the site.

Divided into groups, the children were asked to close their eyes for one minute and listen to what they could hear.

By making notes on a map of the grounds, they explained and compared their different feelings at each location such as the people they could see at each location and what they were doing as well as identifying things they could see around them.

They then discussed how they felt about each of the locations and explored the differences between the groups.

In the second workshop, the children took off their shoes to walk across a large map where they were taken on a tour of England and Wales to identify different places such as on an island, in a National Park, in a City, in a seaside town.

Using symbol cards, they had to work out what the symbol was from a key e.g. a lighthouse on an island, caravan parks in tourist areas and match this to locations on the map using miniature models.

They then used a selection of props and clues to identify one particular location, and summarised all their thoughts about this place on giant postcards.

Megan Young, Head of Geography said: “It was great to have a chance to work with younger children from London and really delightful to see the look of awe on their faces as they explored our remarkable school grounds.”

Christ’s Hospital was founded in London in 1552, moving to its purpose-built campus near Horsham so pupils could benefit from a larger site and healthier and cleaner environment. Today, through its continuing links with a large number of primary schools, 35% of pupils come from London, the majority from inner city boroughs.