Geography

Intent

We aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the childrens’ interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments; together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Gorseland and also to their further education and beyond. We strive to provide a curriculum that helps pupils see themselves and to prepare them for life in a globalised world.

Geography is one of the most relevant subjects our children can learn. Barely a day goes by when geography isn’t in the news. Geographer Michael Palin, puts it: “Geography is all about the living, breathing essence of the world we live in. It explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?”

Implementation

Our curriculum starts in the Early Years and progresses sequentially through to Year Six. In every lesson we focus on developing new skills alongside regular recall of prior knowledge. Our knowledge-engaged progress model clearly outlines the key knowledge and vocabulary for each stage of learning in sequence whilst offering pupils time to revisit and master key skills. The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:

• Locational knowledge

• Place knowledge

• Human and physical geography

• Geographical skills and fieldwork

Our Geography curriculum  is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography. Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning.

Our enquiry questions form the basis for our units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. We have designed these questions to be open-ended with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In attempting to answer them, children learn how to collect, interpret and present data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.

Each unit contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. Our teaching units follow an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National curriculum. This ensures children will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats.

Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places.

Lessons incorporate various teaching strategies from independent tasks to paired and group work, including practical hands-on, computer-based and collaborative tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. 

Impact

After implementing our Geography curriculum, pupils should leave Gorseland equipped with a range of skills and knowledge to enable them to study Geography with confidence at Key stage 3. We hope to shape children into curious and inspired geographers with respect and appreciation for the world around them alongside an understanding of the interconnection between the human and the physical.

The expected impact of our geography curriculum is that children will:

• Compare and contrast human and physical features to describe and understand similarities and differences between various places in the UK, Europe and the Americas.

• Name, locate and understand where and why the physical elements of our world are located and how they interact, including processes over time relating to climate, biomes, natural disasters and the water cycle.

• Understand how humans use the land for economic and trading purposes, including how the distribution of natural resources has shaped this.

• Develop an appreciation for how humans are impacted by and have evolved around the physical geography surrounding them and how humans have had an impact on the environment, both positive and negative.

• Develop a sense of location and place around the UK and some areas of the wider world using the eight-points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and keys on maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs and digital mapping.

• Identify and understand how various elements of our globe create positioning, including latitude, longitude, the hemispheres, the tropics and how time zones work, including night and day.

• Present and answer their own geographical enquiries using planned and specifically chosen methodologies, collected data and digital technologies.

• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Geography.

Teachers make a judgement on the extent to which children have displayed competent skills and met the intended learning outcome each lesson and record this on assessment grids for each module. This feeds into an end of term teacher assessment for each child. Where learning is recorded in books, this is marked regularly by teachers and feedback is given to highlight learning and next steps. 

Subject leaders monitor teaching and learning in their subject through observing teaching and learning in lessons, analysing the work produced by children, talking to samples of children in different year groups about what they know and remember from their learning and termly data analysis to track the progress of learning in their subject across the school. 

Long Term Plan