GlosGeog, Gloucestershire’s local Geographical Association (GA) branch, felt that it should act as a role model and lead the way with a fieldwork activity to mark #NationalFestivalofFieldwork during the month of June. The following opportunity was offered FREE to schools, whether they were Geographical Association (GA)/GlosGeog members or not and located in and beyond Gloucestershire, to promote inclusivity and accessibility within geography: https://create2inspire.co.uk/2025/06/27/glosgeog-embraces-nationalfestivaloffieldwork/ . This was very well-received and sparked interest from many other schools to be involved. So, it was decided to run a repeat of our initial event due to sufficient demand. Fortunately, I was able to pin Daniel Raven-Ellison down (he is a very busy man, even joining us ‘on location’ in Reading!) and enable 10 schools and around 650 Key Stage 2 pupils and their teachers from all over England to experience an action-packed couple of hours.
Following a formal welcome, introductions and outlining housekeeping/protocols, I handed over to Daniel Raven-Ellison, Guerilla Geographer, Founder and CEO of Slow Ways, Founder of National Park Cities and a National Geographic Explorer, as well as a former secondary school teacher for many years.
Firstly, Dan emphasised that we are all explorers, with the power to use geography to help us gain a greater understanding of places and our lives, as well as improve them. He reinforced that exploration is all about asking questions and searching for answers.
To set the scene, Dan showed a brief clip from ‘The UK in 100 seconds‘ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0drvdLYGNuc) and mentioned that he would later be projecting his new film, ‘Earth in 100 seconds‘.
He explained how satellites are used to observe land from space and shared some stunning NASA images of Earth’s landforms to show how cameras can reveal patterns and details we might otherwise miss.
Such data can be amalgamated to create a land use map. However, it can be difficult for our brains to grasp just how much of Earth’s surface is used in different ways when it is spread across a complex map.
Dan provided a quick explanation of what percentages mean, then introduced his idea of showing land use visually through 100-metre and 100-second walks, where each metre (or second) represents 1% of Earth’s land use.
The team behind his latest film was introduced, including the drone that was employed to help capture this concept.
He then invited the audience to guess how much land is utilised for different purposes. Teachers gathered figures from the children and added them to the chat feed. There were some very interesting guesses!
Next, Dan played his new short film, ‘Earth in 100 seconds‘, proudly announcing that the voiceover was done by his 21 year old son (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MshXmxjEQnc).
Afterwards, he revealed the answers to the earlier questions that he had posed to his audience; in some instances, we were a long way off! Dan then led an open discussion, drawing on aspects shown in the film and asking the children what surprised them the most.
It was now time to ‘take learning beyond the classroom‘. Dan challenged the children to a fieldwork ‘mission’ that they had to complete over the next 30 to 45 minutes. Teachers had been briefed about this in a preliminary discussion meeting, so were well prepared with worksheets and maps at the ready. The youngsters had to imagine that they were pigeons, flying over their local area. They had to go out and explore, identifying at least one place where they thought that there should be a change to the land use, think about what they would like it to be changed to and consider why this should be the case. At the site of proposed change, pupils were challenged to annotate a local OS map generated using Digimap for Schools (DfS) (https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/) and fill in a worksheet.
On their return, we zoomed into each classroom and asked one or two representatives to communicate their findings to the wider audience. It was clear that this activity had opened their eyes to what was around them. There were several very impressive field sketches too.
Dan then set pupils a follow-up task (see below), which we hope will also promote future activism and advocacy in school.
The morning concluded with us gathering pupil and staff voice via the chat feed. Both youngsters and teachers were asked to sum up today’s session in five words or a sentence or two, plus identify what went well (WWW) and even better if (EBI). A collection of their responses can be seen below:
Pupil voice
Sum up today’s session in five words or a sentence or two:
Lovely to be outside. (Coteford Junior School)
Learning about the natural environment around us. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Adventurous; educational; wildlife; discovery; reflection. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Different; fun; interesting; surprising; calming. (Simmondley Primary School)
Fantastic; fun; adventurous – loved it! (The Mount School)
Learning to be respectful to nature. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Calm; peaceful; educational; interesting; being outside. (Newbold School)
We enjoyed it! (Willow Wood Primary School)
Enjoyable; educational and HOT! (Finlay Community School)
Fun; exciting; interesting; educational. (Finlay Community School)
What went well (WWW):
Learning how to step forwards for wildlife. (Burnside Primary School)
Drawing and thinking about our environment. (Coteford Junior School)
Completing fieldwork; researching outside; good weather! (Willow Wood Primary School)
Getting to our site; doing our field sketches; great to be outside. (The Mount School)
Getting the chance to reflect on what we discovered. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Working outside is good. (Newbold School)
Better than being in the classroom! (Burnside Primary School)
Enjoying wildlife and being outside of the classroom. (Finlay Community School)
We love learning about wildlife. (Burnside Primary School)
Even better if (EBI):
… we spent more time outside. (The Mount School)
We’re going out this afternoon to do more as we needed more time and to explore more of our grounds. (Coteford Junior School)
If we could actually make the changes that we had suggested. (Burnside Primary School)
Time to visit more places; visit a nature reserve for comparison. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Would be better if more people understood the problems. (Newbold School)
Staff voice
It was a fantastic morning for fieldwork! Thank you Emma Espley and Daniel Raven-Ellison for the engaging and thought provoking session. Our Year 4s were astonished at the percentages revealed by Dan’s amazing video, #Earthin100Seconds, and they loved getting outside to do their own field sketches. I highly recommend using this film in schools, as it will inspire so much amazing geography. 🌎 (Burnside Primary School)
Thank you very much – we loved it! (Simmondley Primary School)
Thank you so much from us all at Burnside! A really great morning. (Burnside Primary School)
Thank you very much, we’ve enjoyed it and will be looking to see if we can make any changes to our local area in the future – starting with a discussion with our School Council. (Willow Wood Primary School)
Thank you from The Mount School. We’ve had a fantastic time. (The Mount School)
The morning was: Inspiring, fascinating and thought provoking. The children wondered why we had got to this point where there were problems to be solved. It certainly inspired them to want to work on protecting the environment for the future with more determination. The introduction with the video and especially the initial question with the % was loved by the children and both provided an engaging hook for the children then to go out and carry on with the fieldwork. Some of them got quite confused by the idea of the pigeon thinking it was only about the pigeon. However, it lead to other discussion about if we plant a hedge it is not only good for the pigeon but provides other habitats too. Thank you for a great morning. (Newbold School)
Thank you so much for including us in the ‘Earth in 100 seconds’ workshop – the children were really engaged in it! I think this was my favourite so far, too! (Simmondley Primary School)
Speaking to the children they really enjoyed it and wouldn’t stop talking about it! (Willow Wood Primary School)
Thanks again for the session and we look forward to continuing our fieldwork journey in September. (Newbold School)
All in all, an enjoyable and reflective morning, it seems. Moreover, we were blessed with some glorious sunshine!
Well done to all those involved. We look forward to receiving photographs of the children in action and their follow-up work in the next day or so. The best ones will be selected to appear in an article that both Dan and I have been asked to write for the Geographical Association (GA)’s Primary Geography journal.