Intent of our geography curriculum, provision and enrichment

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help 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, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Implementation

We use the Kapow Mixed-Age Geography scheme of work for our Geography curriculum which is designed with the national curriculum geographical strands.

These are:

• Locational knowledge

• Place knowledge

• Human and physical geography

• Geographical skills and fieldwork

Geography is taught on a fortnightly cycle in tandem with History. Units of lessons are sequential, having a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each year group.

Skills are taught within each year group developing to ensure attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. Geographical key concepts are woven across all units rather than being taught discretely. The 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. The two EYFS units provide a solid foundation of geographical skills, knowledge and enquiry for children to transition successfully onto Key stage 1 Geography learning, whilst also working towards the Early Learning Goals.

Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning. Enquiry questions form the basis for our Key stage 1 and 2 units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. These questions are 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 represent 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 curriculum 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. Each lesson provides guidance for teachers on how to adapt their teaching to ensure that all pupils can access learning, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are also available if required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to deliver a highly effective and robust Geography curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support CPD. This ensures delivery of lessons is to a high standard that ensures pupil progression.

Geography is celebrated through displays within classrooms, communal areas and externally through the newsletter and school website. We also offer planned Geography enrichment through workshops with outside providers and projects in school.

Inclusivity

Valuing every child as a unique individual, teaching and learning will be adapted to ensure equitable provision, representing all protective characteristics. 

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

Within our geography curriculum, we explore and make connections with a balance of spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects in order to prepare our children for life in modern Britain and our diverse world.

Curriculum Content

Progression of knowledge

We have created comprehensive documents which include our whole school curriculum progression for Geography.  

For copyright reasons, this document is not published on our website, but is available on request.

Subject gallery

Pupil voice

The way that we live can change our environment in different ways – people in the Amazon use the natural resources around them; in our country, our factories and cars change the environment. Some things in these two communities are the same but other things are very different.

Useful websites: