Geography
Subject Leader: Sharon Campbell
Intent
Our intent is to provide learning opportunities which are specific to pupils’ needs (ensuring equality of opportunity and inclusivity) and empowers them to take their learning in any direction. Ensuring a progression of skills and knowledge, equipping pupils with sufficient subject knowledge to allow them to be successful in their future endeavours.
Implementation
Our implementation is to provide a broad and balanced curriculum as set out in the National Curriculum programmes of study which we have chosen to follow and is supplemented through the scheme Bloomsbury Curriculum book Teaching Primary Geography. The suggested sequence of learning has been tailored to enable the pupils to make links to other areas of the curriculum as well as to make the knowledge taught progressive. It aims to foster a love of learning and an appreciation of the natural world by allowing the children to be active and enquire.
As the pupils’ progress through the school, they develop their knowledge of places, locations and compare areas looking for key geographical similarities and differences. Through fieldwork and engagement with the local area, pupils gain an understanding of human and physical geographical features. These skills develop in complexity. For example, in Year 1, children study their school grounds and their local area and through fieldwork they look for key human and physical features including different types of buildings. Further up the school, for example in Year 3 the pupils look at Poland, comparing similarities and differences with the Peak District. Deeping their progression further in Year 6 pupils learn about North America, with cross-curriculum links with British Values and sustainability in the Caribbean.
Geography planning for the medium and long term acknowledges the aims of the NC and aims to expand upon these in order to broaden the experiences of the pupils at Little Bowden. Teaching is adapted where possible to reflect the local area and opportunities are planned, for example trips out of school, for pupils to observe first-hand different geographical features.
Through key questions and hands-on learning, all pupils are scaffolded to attain an understanding of the world around them. Knowledge and vocabulary are carefully sequenced to allow children to develop their knowledge in manageable steps. At the beginning of lessons, the pupils carry out RPLs (reactivate prior learning) so teachers can assess retrieval knowledge and understanding allowing for teacher to react quickly to misconceptions and areas of further development.
Impact
The impact of our Geography curriculum is measured in a variety of ways: questioning during lesson time (including RPLs), marking children’s written work, listening to child-led discussion, interviewing pupils across the school about their learning and book trawls. Coordinator deep dives allow evidence to be obtained for both the content (substantive knowledge) being taught and the knowledge of relationships that enable pupils to understand how ideas are connected (disciplinary knowledge).
