The World Around Us (WAU) is an area of the curriculum which adopts a cross-curricular or interdisciplinary approach to learning. This involves enquiry-based learning, drawing upon insights from traditional subjects such as history, geography, science and technology. Connections to other aspects of the curriculum are also developed including literacy, numeracy, ICT and thinking skills. For example, pupils might write a factual report on a historical event or apply their mathematical knowledge by producing a graph illustrating seasonal changes in the weather. Similarly, they might use their ICT skills to conduct internet research on their topic of interest or develop their thinking skills by comparing and contrasting two animals being studied in the natural world. Underpinning this approach to curriculum integration we seek to ensure that geography, history and science subjects are equally balanced through our chosen WAU topics. Through studying World Around Us, pupils also develop a conceptual understanding of Interdependence, Place, Movement and Energy and, Change Over Time. For example, pupils might explore how living things rely on each other within the natural world (Interdependence) or consider how plants and animals adapt to their environment (Place). Likewise, pupils could research how movement can be accelerated by human and natural events such as wars, earthquakes, famine or floods (Movement and Energy) and explore the effects of positive and negative changes globally and how we contribute to some of these changes. (Change Over Time).

The WAU topics studied in Ballytober PS are shown below. For composite classes we have a two-year planning cycle, shown in yellow and blue.