Rationale

As geographers, children will develop an understanding of their location in the world. As part of our school ethos, we aim to inspire our children and encourage their skills of enquiry whilst nurturing their curiosity about their local area and the world around them. We aim to broaden our children’s horizons within a meaningful context that develops their knowledge and understanding of the world. Children will develop a sense of belonging and a passion to protect and take care of the environment around them. We do this through our termly units, cross curricular learning and Knowledge of the World drivers.

Aims

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time

Children are competent in the geographical skills needed to:

• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

How the subject is taught:

Geography is taught over 2 year cycle. Cycle A and cycle B. One term each cycle is a focussed geography unit. Two terms contain geography lessons which are threaded throughout our curriculum and closely linked to history. The school threads: settlements, leadership, conflict and legacy are explored, built upon and revisited a number of times throughout the different units across the whole school. Knowledge of the World drivers are also taught once a year - these revisit age related key facts, for example, naming the 7 continents of the world.

If you walk into a Geography lesson, you will see:

• Pupils engaged with learning about the world around them.
• Pupils using their geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
• Pupils learning to select, organise and integrate new knowledge with prior learning.
• Geographical vocabulary embedded in the lesson and children using independently when appropriate
• Tolerance and understanding of other cultures
• Sequential lessons developing children’s understanding of location.
• Pupils revisiting prior learning in our Knowledge of the World driver to consolidate their understanding.

If you have any further enquiries about geography in our school, please contact Mrs Emma Brown.