Geography
Geography
Intent:
As pupils progress through the curriculum, they will be equipped with key knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between human and physical processes, and the formation and use of landscapes and environments. They will understand and explain how Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time. The children will understand their place in the world, beginning with their locality and extending this to the rest of the world. The pupils will have a range of fieldwork opportunities both in their local area and beyond to spark their enthusiasm and to allow them to apply their geographical language, knowledge and skills.
The structure of our curriculum aims to equip pupils with the relative knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum. The lessons are taught through creative and stimulating sessions which provide opportunities to bridge back and activate prior learning from previous lessons and previous years to ensure their knowledge is secure, deepened and retained. Geography lessons are taught as a subject not as a ‘topic’, in order to ensure that our children understand what geography is and can therefore self-regulate their knowledge and progress in this subject. We encourage our children to work as geographers, exposing them to a variety of primary and secondary resources, some of which may include: OS maps, Geographical information systems (Google Earth), photographs, atlases, digital/computer mapping. We will use fieldwork skills in lessons where there is relevance to their unit of learning. This enables children to have an understanding of their place in the world and be secure with their own locality, progressing to the wider world. We will make links and comparisons with areas both in the UK and around the world through various case studies. We will make explicit links where relevant, in other curriculum subjects, to develop depth of understanding and encourage our pupils to use key geographical vocabulary. Teachers will bridge back to previous vocabulary taught.
Implementation:
Geography is taught termly, in six lesson blocks. Skills and knowledge are built upon and previous learning is regularly revisited. Lessons are primarily taught through direct, explicit instruction, practice and then feedback. Discussion (both pupil to pupil and pupil to teacher) has an important role in the development of geographical ideas. Effective questioning by the teacher is key to allow children to practise new knowledge and to help them make links and bridge back to previously taught knowledge. Essentially, through these opportunities for talk, key vocabulary, and so core knowledge, is truly mastered. Formative assessment is essential in the implementation of the geography curriculum to ensure that all children are developing the core knowledge and skills and for any misconceptions to be addressed.
Impact:
The approach to assessment is less formal than in core subject disciplines. In geography, there is ongoing teacher assessment to ensure that the children are keeping up with the pace of the curriculum and achieving our goals. We assess at the end of the Foundation Stage against the Early Learning Goals. There is no published data for geography in KS1 and KS2. The school tracks foundation subjects very broadly to ensure that children are working within the curriculum expectations for their year group.
Geography books are key to capturing pupil work and ongoing assessment questions. Talking to pupils is key to the continual refinement and development of the geography curriculum. Regular pupil voice conferences provide valuable feedback which is used to assess pupil’s understanding and the success of units of work.