Learning Zone

The locality for young children is defined in the National Curriculum as the immediate neighbourhood of home and school.

In History, pupils are expected to study 'the way of life of people in the more distant past who lived in the local area'. They are required to find out about the past from 'a range of sources of information' including photographs and historic buildings and to develop ICT skills when finding and presenting information.

In Geography pupils are required to study the locality of the school in order to recognise how places have become the way they are and to start thinking about the nature of their environment. They should be developing skills in fieldwork, geographical enquiry and ICT, using sources including photographs, maps and plans.

An important element in the curriculum for Citizenship aims to give pupils an awareness of their local environment and how it can be looked after and also to introduce the idea of belonging to different communities.

The locality for pupils this age should be somewhere they are familiar with, generally the local village, housing estate or town centre.

In History, Unit 7 is a Local History study that can be taught as a 'discrete study' or linked to another History unit, usually Victorian Britain or Britain since 1930, or to the locality study in Geography. Teachers are encouraged to make further links to their local area wherever possible and exploit the opportunities to develop skills in using local sources, fieldwork and ICT.

The Geography curriculum concentrates on the skills to be taught through studying themes and localities at a range of scales including local. Several of the skills identified relate to the environment, both natural and built, and pupils are required to learn fieldwork techniques and use sources including photographs and written text.

The Citizenship curriculum includes the aim of making pupils aware of local environmental issues and how individuals in the community can affect decisions. Unit 9 Respect for Property section 4 'New uses for empty buildings'.

Secondary School students can look at a wider area or region when studying their locality, building on studies made in the earlier phases.

The History Curriculum requires students be taught to '.. use a range of appropriate sources of information including.. documents, printed sources, … photographs, buildings and sites, and ICT-based sources … Teachers are recommended to relate national events to the local area wherever appropriate and required to focus on the local area as part of the study of Britain 1750-1900, exemplified in the QCA guidelines in Unit 11 'Industrial changes: action and reaction'.

The Geography programme of study states that 'Teaching should ensure that geographical enquiry and skills are used when developing knowledge and understanding of places, patterns and processes and environmental change and sustainable development'. Photographs [including oblique and vertical aerial photographs] are identified as sources and the breadth of study is expanded to encompass the study of individual settlements and different environments, including the student's local area.

The Citizenship schemes of work include units on local democracy and community involvement and make links to environmental issues, planning projects and issues of sustainable development.

Follow any of the links below for more information on local studies

How to plan a local study : : Local Study Planning Framework