Geography Curriculum Statement of Intent
To develop children’s experiences, understanding, geographical skills and vocabulary. We teach a creative and hands-on Geography curriculum to inspire children’s interest and curiosity about the wider world giving them the vital tools and cultural capital to become active and reflective members in the world.
Intent
- To build a Geography curriculum that develops learning and results in the acquisition of Geographical knowledge and skills. This includes locational knowledge, place knowledge, physical themes, human themes and Geographical skills and enquiry. Children will know more, remember more and understand more. This will ensure progress in this subject.
- We aim to not only cover but also to exceed the depth and breadth of the National Curriculum.
- To provide a varied and diverse curriculum that interests our children and meets the needs of all backgrounds, cultures and abilities, including those with SEND needs.
- To create meaningful opportunities to link Geography to other subjects.
- To ensure units are taught in a logical sequence where children build on prior, core knowledge. This will allow children to make connections to different concepts such as weather, climate and environmental processes.
- Staff will follow their curriculum maps to ensure there is progression throughout the school and lessons follow a sequence that is pertinent to the topic.
- To fulfil the duties of the National Curriculum whereby schools must provide a broad and balanced curriculum. We promote the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, development of pupils and prepare them for their responsibilities for later life. e.g. conservation.
- We will monitor progress regularly through book looks, evidence of work and discussions with the pupils. We will ensure that all staff are kept informed of any changes within the Geography curriculum and that best practice is shared.
- To monitor children progress in Geography and how they apply their learning throughout the curriculum.
- To build a Geographical curriculum that endorses the importance of outdoor learning (fieldwork); to build a curiosity for learning.
- To provide all children with a balance of skills, key vocabulary and knowledge within a geographical context.
Implementation
- Rising Stars scheme
We use and adapt the Rising Stars scheme. Subject leader has listened to feedback from teachers whilst ensuring complete National Curriculum coverage. The scheme helps teachers with expert subject knowledge, while building in a progression of knowledge and skills, and creating hands-on creative learning opportunities. - Knowledge Organisers
Children have access to core knowledge, vocabulary and meanings to understand Geography and to use these skills across the curriculum. - Knowledge/display walls
Geography on Knowledge Walls throughout school focus on key knowledge, vocabulary and questions. These exemplify the terminology used throughout the teaching of Geography, British Values and SMSC, and enable pupils to make links across the wider curriculum. - Recap prior learning
At the beginning of each unit, teachers and pupils recap previous knowledge and skills learnt in prior modules to help them make connections and build on prior knowledge. At the beginning of each lesson, teachers and pupils recap prior knowledge, highlighting core knowledge and relevant fingertip knowledge. - Subject specific and content specific vocabulary
Identified through knowledge organisers and knowledge wall displays and highlighted to the children at the beginning of lessons. This vocabulary is revisited through class assemblies, ‘Quiz Its’ and ‘Check Its’. - Outdoor Learning (fieldwork and enquiry)
Teaching and learning should plan for outdoor learning opportunities in each year group. The purpose of each trip is to be clear. Children will become more aware of their local environment and as they progress through their geographical education they will use and build maps specific to their areas of enquiry. Maps of the UK and the World are positioned in various outdoor areas and playgrounds to help improve locational knowledge. - Assessment via Check Its, Quiz Its, Big Finishes and Target Tracker
In Years 1-6, children complete a ‘Check It’. This is an interim assessment against age expectation targets using the Rising Stars example statements to help assess. This assessment informs teaching for the rest of the unit to help ensure key knowledge and skills are learned. Children also complete a 'Big Finish' at the end of their topic to showcase the key knowledge and skills they have learned through out. These assessments are then inputted onto Target Tracker, our progress tracker system and moderated by subject leader and SLT. Children also complete ‘Quiz Its’. A ‘Quiz It’ is completed the term after that particular module finished to help children recap knowledge and to teacher assess what knowledge has been remembered. Children go through the quiz after its completion. Assessment information is then analysed by teachers, subject leads and SLT to improve children’s future learning. - Provision in new EYFS framework
Reception curriculum is included in our progression framework and carefully planned for to ensure there is a combination of progression and revisited learning between Reception and Year One. Reception children are given a secure grounding in the Prime Areas of learning, ensuring they have a good foundation on which to build through the specific areas, including ‘Understanding The World’. Areas of provision are enhanced to ensure children are exposed to vocabulary and they are able to develop their understanding of the world and their local area. - Access to resources
Children will access resources to acquire learning through atlases, globes, text books, maps, digital technology, photographs and fieldwork equipment for example every class from Reception- Year Six have their own globes which are consistently used. - British Values and PSHE
Children will learn and revisit the importance of our world and how it should be treated through a range of cultural capital, experiences and themed weeks/days such as British Values week, Earth Day, Environmental Week etc. - Learning environment
The learning environment is designed to ensure children develop their geographical knowledge, and continue to know more, remember more and understand more. Knowledge walls and organisers are key drivers to this. Teachers make reference to them during lessons and at other regular times during the week. - Cultural Capital
We plan visits, visitors and involvement in the community activity to provide first-hand experiences for the children to support and develop their learning. This is often linked to Geography. While educational visits may have in the past been temporarily suspended due to COVID 19, we actively explored other ways to bring cultural capital to our children, for example through the internet, using virtual tours of museums and virtual lessons to help teach environmental issues. Trips and visits around London and the local area are now fully back in place and being organised. - Themed weeks/days with a Geography focus
In order to implement our intention of exceeding the National curriculum we schedule themed weeks where the whole school focuses on an aspect of Geography. This includes celebrating; Environmental Week, British Values Week, World Cultural and Heritage day and Geography Week (where each year group focuses on a continent with clear progression through out the year groups). The latter aims to secure key knowledge in locational and place knowledge. - Staff CPD
We have informative CPD’s that develop the skills and knowledge of teaching staff. Where appropriate, this is shared with other schools within the borough while any knowledge gained from such meetings is brought back to the school.
Impact
- Children will know more, remember more and understand more about Geography.
- A culture of high expectations where pupil’s love of Geography can flourish.
- We allow children to fully immerse themselves in a Geography topic while minimising cognitive overload.
- The large majority of children will achieve age related expectation in Geography.
- Children will build their knowledge of Geographical strands including; locational knowledge (UK and the local area and the world and its continents), place knowledge (understanding differences and similarities between the UK and different places), physical themes, human themes and Geographical skills and enquiry (map and atlas work and fieldwork and investigation).
- Children should understand the relevance of geographical skills they are learning and how they can apply them to other areas of the National Curriculum. Children develop their knowledge and skills in each area of Geography over each year.
- As geographers, children will retain knowledge about geography with an appropriate context. Children will learn lessons that will influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future as active and responsible citizens.
- Children’s cultural capital will increase to help improve their life chances.
- Children will work collaboratively to solve problems and explain the processes that they have observed within a real life context.