Geography

Our Geography curriculum has been developed to inspire pupils’ curiosity and explore the connections between the natural and human world. We want children to know more, remember more and apply their learning in new contexts. We aim to ignite in our pupils, a fascination for the planet and their place in it; and to provide our children with a sense of awe and wonder about the world they live in. Through the teaching of Geography, we will equip pupils with knowledge about places and people; resources in the environment; and an understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes that have shaped our landscape and environments. We want the children to enjoy learning about Geography both inside and outside the classroom, including educational visits to develop fieldwork and practice their geographical skills. Or curriculum is designed so that pupils can become respectful global citizens considering themes such as sustainability, development and climate change in their everyday lives.

How do we teach geography?

Our Geography curriculum and lessons will be effective by ensuring we implement Geography in the follow ways:

We will teach a rich variety of topics and issues and use this teaching to encourage and enthuse our children. We will build on a wide range of geographical skills, including:

Geographical enquiry – children ask questions and collect information, express conclusions, arguments and develop a sense of curiosity of the world around them.
Fieldwork – giving children the chance to experience such things as landscape features, busy urban streets and explorations of their local environment. Giving pupils opportunities to develop subject knowledge, and gain a range of skills that are difficult to develop in the classroom alone.
Graphicacy – use of atlases and globes, (aerial) photographs, map work and ICT to select, interpret, investigate, refine and present information.
Geographical communication- use appropriate geographical vocabulary and conventions in both speech and writing.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.
Teachers within key stages plan together to create engaging and informative teaching and learning opportunities with consideration of prior learning and plan for progression in skills.

We recognise the fact that there are children of widely different geographical abilities in all classes, and we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this by:

Setting tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
Setting tasks of increasing difficulty working towards a mastery of the curriculum;
Providing resources of different complexity, according to the ability of the child;
Using classroom assistants to support the work of individual children or groups of children.

In EYFS the children explore places, people, communities and their world through their work related to “Knowledge and Understanding of the World “. In KS1 and KS2 Geography is taught through planned links to the National Curriculum via our cross curricular topic work. The objectives have been split accordingly and the units covered by each year group can be found on the long- term progression document.

We recognise that our curriculum planning must allow pupils to gain a progressively deeper understating and competency, building on earlier experiences as they move through school.

Geography is assessed in accordance with the school’s assessment policy. This enables the teacher to make an annual assessment of progress for each child, as part of the child’s annual report to parents. We pass this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year.

Early Years

Early Years explore geographical themes and content through the Understanding of the World strand of the EYFS curriculum. This involves guiding the children to develop sense of their physical world, as well as their community, through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment. They are assessed according to the Development Matters Attainment targets.

Key Stage 1

During Key Stage 1 pupils will investigate their local area and a contrasting area in the United Kingdom or abroad, finding out about the environment in both areas and the people who live there. They also begin to learn about the wider world. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions about people, places and environments, and use geographical skills and resources such as maps and photographs.

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their local area. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

Key Stage 2

Pupils investigate a variety of people, places and environments in the United Kingdom and abroad, and start to make links between different places in the world. They find out how people affect the environment and how they are affected by it. Pupils carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs and ICT. Children will develop geographical enquiry skills, including asking geographical questions, collecting and recording information and identifying different views. They will acquire the appropriate practical skills associated with Geography, including using suitable vocabulary, fieldwork techniques and maps, plans and atlases. Pupils will use secondary sources of information with accuracy, including aerial photographs, satellite images, etc. Links will continue to be forged within regarding our project with Mercy School in Kenya.

As well as making its own distinctive contribution to the school curriculum, geography contributes to the wider aims of primary education. Teachers will ensure that links between subjects are maximised to ensure cross curricular links are sustained.

What is the impact of our Geography Curriculum?

Within geography, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed on investigative learning opportunities to help children gain a coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school. Children will deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and how this affects landscapes and environment.

We want children to thoroughly enjoy and love learning about geography by gaining this knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits.

This will equip them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.

Crucially, the geography curriculum aims to engender the excitement, creativity and critical thinking about the world that will equip our children to make their own way in it.