Geography

Intent

Our geography curriculum has been designed to guide the children on their journey and understanding of the world around them. The teaching of geography should provide children with the cultural capital that they will need to succeed in their lives beyond primary education. Through trips, visits and discussions of current affairs, children should become engaged with the world around them, at a local, national and international level.

We aim to foster in them a desire to know more about the people and places of the world, gaining a greater understanding of their locality and the wider world and nurturing that love of the subject that will continue to grow throughout their lives.  All children, including those with SEND, EAL, disadvantaged, Pupil Premium and those working at Greater Depth, will develop skills that they can transfer and use in many different areas of the curriculum. The children will ask questions and find answers about the human and natural aspects of the world.

The children will develop a real sense of the geography of their local area, which in turn will develop a sense of who they are, their lives and their heritage. Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of key concepts, knowledge and skills.

We aim to give children the tools and characteristics to become successful geographers by:

• Fostering a real interest and love of the subject and nurturing their curiosity about the world in which they live.
• Having an excellent subject knowledge of what places are like and where they are situated in the world. Including Britain and more diverse places around the world.
• Become investigators and look at the world with new eyes, making careful observations, developing their questioning skills and being confident when presenting their findings to a range of audiences.
• To develop and hone fieldwork techniques.
• To gain and continue to build upon a rich geographical vocabulary.
• To understand similarities and differences between parts of the world and be able to discuss and give their own opinions about them.

Implementation

Geography is taught through topics, giving the children the opportunity to gain depth in their learning. Each topic is carefully planned using the objectives from the National Curriculum, with teachers identifying the key skills and knowledge within each unit to ensure progression across each key stage, using high quality texts.  Cross curricular links are specifically planned for. The local area and school grounds are utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, giving the children a range of opportunities to learn outside of the classroom environment. Foundation stage follows the Development Matters in the EYFS guidance which aims for all children in reception to develop an ‘Understanding of the world; people and communities, the world and technology’ through open-ended, child-initiated and teacher led activities and lessons.

Teachers also:

• Plan a range of visits and visitors to school to boost the learning experience and strengthen the pupils knowledge and skills in the subject.
• Ensure that all children are given the same opportunity and experiences, including groups such as children with SEND, EAL, disadvantaged children, those receiving Pupil Premium and those working at Greater Depth. 
• Create knowledge organisers for each topic ensuring that the children use and apply the vocabulary and achieve the objectives set out in the ‘sticky knowledge’ section of the document.
• Create a learning environment where children are challenged are confident to present their ideas, investigations and questions to a rage of audiences.
• Offer an end of topic quiz closely linked to the objectives covered in the unit.

Impact

Our geography curriculum is well thought out and planned to demonstrate clear progression. By the time that the pupils reach the end of KS2, they will:

• Have an excellent understanding of where places are in the world and what they are like.
• Be able to draw upon a sound and extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• Be able to make links and use their knowledge in other areas of the curriculum.
• Have an excellent understanding of how places are interdependent and interconnected and how much the human and physical environments are interrelated.
• The children will demonstrate a range of enquiry skills. They will demonstrate an enquiring mind and present clear conclusions from their findings to a range of audiences.
• Have had the opportunities to carry out a range of fieldwork both on and off site and benefitted from school visitors and subject experts to further enhance their knowledge , curiosity and love of the subject.
• The children will be able to demonstrate a genuine enthusiasm for the subject having acquired a solid foundation of skills on knowledge. This foundation will be a strong base to continue to build upon as they move into KS3 with a real curiosity to discover more about the amazingly diverse and beautiful world that God has created for them to live in.

Example of knowledge organisers...