History · 3rd Year · Local Studies: Investigating Our Area · Summer Term

What is a Locality?

Let's explore what makes our area special. We will define the boundaries of our locality and discuss the key features that give it a unique identity.

TL;DR:Turn your pupils into historical detectives with this engaging topic that uses maps to tell the story of your local area.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• SESE History: Local Studies - My locality through time

About This Topic

This topic aligns directly with the 'Local Studies' strand of the Irish Primary School History Curriculum, specifically the strand unit 'My locality through time'. For Third Class pupils, it provides a tangible and engaging way to develop key historical skills. By using primary sources like historical maps from Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) and comparing them with contemporary digital or paper maps, pupils act as historians. They are not just learning facts, but actively investigating the processes of change and continuity in their own immediate environment. This fosters a sense of place and an understanding that history is not just about distant events, but is embedded in the streets, buildings, and fields around them.

The core of this topic is inquiry-based learning. Pupils will develop their skills in observation, questioning, and analysis as they identify changes in land use, infrastructure, and settlement patterns. The key questions guide them from simple identification ('what has changed?') to more complex reasoning ('why has it changed?') and empathetic understanding ('how did this affect people?'). This approach helps pupils appreciate that their locality has been shaped by historical forces like population growth, technological advancements, and economic shifts, making history relevant and personal.

Key Questions

1. Identify the key natural and man-made features of our locality.
2. Explain how the name of our townland, village, or street might tell us something about its history.
3. Compare our locality today with how you imagine it might have been 100 years ago.

Learning Objectives

• Compare a historical map with a contemporary map of the local area.
• Identify three examples of change and one example of continuity between the two maps.
• Suggest a plausible reason for a specific change observed on the maps.
• Describe how a change, such as a new road or housing estate, might have affected people's daily lives.
• Use key terms like 'locality', 'change', and 'continuity' when discussing the maps.

Key Vocabulary

Locality	The particular area or neighbourhood where you live.
Map Key / Legend	A box on a map that explains what the different symbols and colours mean.
Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI)	The national organisation responsible for creating maps of Ireland.
Change	The process of something becoming different over time.
Continuity	The process of things staying the same over time.
Land Use	What the land in a particular area is used for, such as farming, housing, or industry.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Old maps are just wrong or badly drawn.

What to Teach Instead

Explain that old maps were very accurate for their time, but they showed the world as it was then. Map-making technology has improved, but the old map is a true snapshot of the past.

Common Misconception

New things are always better than old things.

What to Teach Instead

Discuss the pros and cons of a change. For example, a new road might make travel faster, but it might also mean a favourite park or old building was removed. Change can have both positive and negative effects.

Common Misconception

Nothing is the same as it was in the olden days.

What to Teach Instead

Challenge pupils to find things that have stayed the same (continuity), such as a river, a church, a main road, or the location of the town centre. This shows the connection between the past and present.

Active Learning Ideas

Think-Pair-Share

Map Detectives

In pairs, pupils are given a copy of a historical map and a modern map of their locality. Using a checklist and magnifying glasses, they hunt for differences, circling changes on a transparent overlay or noting them down.

45 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share

Then and Now Storyboard

Pupils choose one specific location that has changed, such as a field that is now a housing estate. They create a simple two-panel storyboard or comic strip showing what it looked like 'then' and what it looks like 'now', with captions explaining the change.

30 min·Individual

Think-Pair-Share

Community Timeline

As a whole class, create a large timeline on the wall. As pupils discover significant changes from the maps (e.g., 'New school built', 'Motorway opened'), they add a drawing or note to the timeline to build a collective history of the area.

40 min·Whole Class

Real-World Connections

• Reading maps is a vital life skill for navigation and understanding your surroundings.
• Understanding local history helps build a sense of community pride and belonging.
• Informing community planning by appreciating which historical features are important to preserve.
• Connecting with older generations by asking them about their memories of how the locality has changed.
• Recognising that the environment around us is constantly evolving and that today's actions will shape the future.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Teacher observation during pair work. Listen to pupils' discussions to assess their ability to spot differences and reason about causes.

Quick Check

Pupils complete a 'Then and Now' worksheet. They draw or describe a feature from the old map and what is there now, adding a sentence to explain why the change might have occurred.

Quick Check

Pupils use a 'two stars and a wish' method to reflect on their map-reading skills: two things they did well and one thing they found tricky.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find old maps of our school's area?

The best place to start is Ordnance Survey Ireland's online GeoHive map viewer, which has historical maps from different periods. Your local library's history section or the county council archives are also excellent resources.

Why did they build a big housing estate where the fields used to be?

This is a great question. It's usually because more people needed homes in the area. As towns and cities grow, we need more space for houses, schools, and shops, and this often means building on what used to be farmland.

What if our school is very new and isn't on the old map?

That's a fantastic discovery! It tells you that your school is a recent and important part of the locality's history. You can investigate what was on the land before the school was built.