Vision:
The Geography curriculum at Settle CE Primary School supports our children to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We want our children to grow up knowing they can make a positive impact to the world in which they live.
Intent:
At Settle CE Primary School, our subject leader is Mrs Hulse, who is also one of the teachers in Year 3. At Settle CE Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, its interconnectedness and their place in it. Our Geography curriculum enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas.
In line with the National Curriculum 2014, we aim 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.
- 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.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure that the teaching equips pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a greater understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes, and to encourage the children to show their respect for their local, national and international environment. As our pupils progress through the school, increasing their geographical skills, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that provide explanations of how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
We seek to inspire in our children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives, equipping them for further education and beyond.
Implementation:
At Settle CE Primary School, our Geography curriculum aims to allow the children to develop their own skills as geographers, to recall knowledge and to make connections. We alternate our Geography and History topics ensuring that our children receive a well-rounded teaching of these two subjects throughout the year. Geography is taught in half termly units and our Geography curriculum is planned in line with the knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum throughout KS1 and KS2. We use Oddizzi Planning pathways to help structure our planning. At times, we take the opportunity to create links between geography and History in order to help the children make connections between the learning taking place. Our Reception class follows the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. 'Understanding the World' involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
The local area is utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world.
Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion.
To help children with their recall of knowledge in all units of work, teachers in Y1-6 will use:
· Flashbacks- 3/4/5 questions (depending on the year group) at the beginning of a lesson to check which knowledge has ‘stuck’ from the previous lesson.
· Knowledge Organisers- these are accessed by all pupils to support their current, past and future learning in the current unit of work.
Key vocabulary for the current unit of work is accessible for the children to check their understanding.
Impact:
At Settle CE Primary School, we aim that children continuously build on their knowledge in Geography. We want every child to have a passion for Geography and an enthusiastic engagement in learning,
By the time children leave Settle CE Primary School they will:
· Have a greater knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
· Have a deeper understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
· Have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
· Be fluent in geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
· Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
· Have a passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
· Have the ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in secure knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.
The Geography subject leader and the Senior Leadership Team will undertake monitoring and evaluation, in the form of learning walks, book looks and pupil/ teacher voices. The pupil voice questionnaires will clearly show how much the children value geography and if any improvements can be made.
Outcomes in books will evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. At the start of each lesson the children will undertake knowledge checks (Flashbacks), to check that they have remembered the key knowledge from the previous lessons. These will always be low stakes and the children will be encouraged to find the answers in their books if needed.