Geography

Intent - What we want for our developing geographers?

• Children to be inspired and curious about the world in which they live.
• A progressive and purposeful geography curriculum that excites and enthuses our developing geographers.
• The use of high-quality texts to that support children in exploring new concepts whilst making purposeful links across other subjects.
• A curriculum that is fully inclusive for all.
• To provide our children with knowledge about the diverse people, places, resources and natural and human environments.
• For children to develop confidence in using geographical skills, such as collecting, analysing and presenting data from fieldwork, to deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
• To ensure children develop secure locational knowledge and map skills, systematically built year on year, so that they can confidently place the UK, Europe and the wider world in context.
• To help children understand what it means to think like a geographer, developing enquiry skills, interpreting and evaluating sources of information, and considering different perspectives about people and places.

Our geography curriculum offers comprehensive and well-balanced coverage, ensuring students acquire essential skills and knowledge while progressively deepening their understanding of geographical concepts. By revisiting and reinforcing key ideas across different year groups, students build on their skills over time, leading to continuous growth in their geographical understanding. Our goal is to foster a lasting appreciation and enthusiasm for geography in every child.

Implementation - How is the curriculum delivered?

The geography curriculum has been carefully crafted for every year group, with clear essential learning identified, to ensure that the National Curriculum is fully covered, that the sequence builds on skills, and progression is clear.

• Sequencing of lessons allows for children to connect previously taught knowledge from across the curriculum to new learning in order to help make connections and understand new learning.
• Regular retrieval opportunities planned in to reinforce previously taught knowledge in order to consolidate prior learning. It also used as a strategy to assess knowledge.
• Key vocabulary identified and shared and discussed throughout lessons and revisited in future lessons.
• Teachers assess and adapt learning for all groups of learners, specifically providing support and challenge where required.
• Links are made to wider areas of the curriculum when they naturally fit to ensure opportunities for pupils to develop their learning in a range of contexts.
• Locational knowledge and map skills are progressively taught across the school, from early map-making in EYFS through to interpreting complex maps, atlases and digital sources in KS2.
• Children engage in enquiry-based learning and fieldwork that strengthens their ability to ask geographical questions, gather and interpret data, and explain geographical processes.

When delivering this curriculum for our children, we wanted to ensure that opportunities were created for application of learning across the subject, for example: In EYFS, through stories, children develop an awareness of different places around the world, including beginning to identify similarities and differences between their own country and others. Year 1 then follow this with a focus on their local area of Helsby and comparing a contrasting village in Trinidad. This build-up of physical and human features supports children with their learning throughout KS2, as they develop a more in depth understanding of physical and human characteristics of the UK, Europe, North America and South America. 

Our curriculum is delivered in a way that ensures overlearning of key concepts and opportunities to revisit learning. Where it supports the delivery of the curriculum, subjects align with one another to provide these opportunities, for example: In Year 4, children use a text in English which details the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, providing a base knowledge and vocabulary development for when they approach this again in geography, where Year 4 take part in a comparison study between the Bay of Naples and the North-West of the UK.

Reading across the curriculum

In order to develop children's reading skills, our teaching staff plan opportunities for children to independently read age-appropriate texts that link to the geography knowledge being studied, or learning that has been previously taught. We have invested heavily in supporting our geography curriculum, once children have learned to read, with Collins Big Cat titles that enrich the wider curriculum alongside a subscription with an education library service. Whole class reading lessons from Year 2 and throughout KS2 are intentionally sequenced to develop children's background knowledge and widen their subject-specific vocabulary. For example, when studying the United Kingdom in Team 3, children read a range of texts linked to physical and human features of the UK and texts that support them to further develop their understanding of maps. When studying Europe in Team 4, children read a range of texts that help teach them about physical and human characteristics of cities in Europe. 

Curriculum Enrichment

Where possible, geography learning is enriched by a school trip or by a visitor coming into school. Trips and visitors are carefully planned to ensure they link with what is happening or will happen in the classroom.  For example, we aim for children to have visited a beach before they learn about coasts in Year 3.  High quality fieldwork is also an integral part of our curriculum offer, with visits out of school to collect data to solve enquiry questions. For example, in Year 6, children will visit our local windfarm to create sketch maps before finding out about locals’ opinions.

Impact - How do we know our geography curriculum is effective?

Our inclusive ethos and approach to creating our curriculum offer means that we have thought about how children can demonstrate their learning in a way that is accessible for all. Carefully planned and identified essential learning ensures that teachers and leaders can specifically assess children’s knowledge and understanding, linking directly to the children’s intended learning.

• A range of assessment opportunities are used to track progression without creating unnecessary workload, including retrieval tasks, pupil voice, and the evaluation of pupils’ ability to apply geographical skills in new contexts.
• Pupil Voice is one of the ways that we ensure learning is sticking and that the curriculum is achieving our aims. We believe that if children have become skilful and knowledgeable geographers, they will be able to articulate their understanding with confidence.
• Children present their understanding of geography learning in various ways: through high-quality written outcomes and art pieces; through the use of drama; or through class discussions, debates and presentations.
• Throughout their learning, opportunities are planned for children to show their understanding of what has been taught. Children have learning journeys which show their progress throughout the curriculum, and displays are created around school to celebrate learning and provide opportunities for recall.
• Our enrichment offer, including trips, visitors and first-hand fieldwork experiences, contributes strongly to children’s cultural capital, ensuring they have opportunities to broaden their horizons, engage with diverse communities, and appreciate the interconnectedness of the world

If you have any further enquiries relating to the geography curriculum, please email Mrs Jobber on deputy@hornsmill.cheshire.sch.uk.