Geography

Geography Curriculum Intent

Vision

Our curriculum at Lockerley Primary School encompasses the following aims to meet the needs of our children and the Geography curriculum is a vehicle to bring these aims to life:

Aims of our curriculum

ACTIVE - Provide richness and depth to inspirational learning in school - A wide range of mapping resources, high quality visual stimuli and opportunities to discuss global issues in depth, are used to embed conceptual understanding in the Geography curriculum to allow pupils to make links between each area of learning.
EXPERIENCES - Provide a breadth of opportunity out of school whilst rooting children in their immediate and local environment. Using the local area and a wide range of mapping skills for them to understand their own environment in order to compare against other places.
DIVERSITY - Build cultural awareness & knowledge to encourage children to be outward looking and forward thinking. Teaching across both key stages provides opportunities for children to build on their cultural awareness through finding out about a wide range of countries and their citizens from across the whole world. They compare contrasting cultures, empathising with people in different social and economic backgrounds to their own.
PURPOSE - We believe learning should matter. Making meaningful learning is central to our teaching. Learning journeys are made clear to the children with an outcome we are working towards and the steps along the way. We have developed ‘real life’ opportunities for children to share their work and the children are encouraged to lead their own lines of geographical enquiry.

Geography Curriculum Implementation

EYFS

EYFS planning is matched to age and stage appropriate curriculum. Geographical skills are adapted to match key areas of the curriculum, with children building on their knowledge of everyday objects and their local environment, as well as key vocabulary such as village, school, field, playground and prepositions to demonstrate understanding. The provision includes individual and small group work, and a balance between guided interaction with direct teaching and child-led activities. Objective led planning allows the teachers to tailor individual next steps, based on assessments, into the environment and play-based activities for the children. Small group work is used to target particular needs, and early intervention is also used 1:1 with a child if they have been identified as not keeping up.

Y1-6

Geography is taught in the Spring Term, and as the key foundation subject it is allocated two afternoons per week for in-depth study. Teachers plan from the National Curriculum objectives alongside the Hampshire Geographical Progression of Skills. Each year group has a long term plan which outlines the learning journeys to be covered referring to the units in the National Curriculum. This is a progressive cyclical learning approach where learning is revisited over the course of each Key Stage, deepening their understanding each time.

Each learning journey is central to the teaching and this is made clear to the children. This is shared through the ‘big question’ which features on the Geography learning wall in each classroom. This will incorporate all the skills they will be learning within the unit, therefore children are able to understand how one lesson builds on another within the journey.

By presenting our learning in this way, and allowing children the opportunity to deepen their understanding by focusing on Geography for an entire term, children have opportunities to follow their own lines of enquiry, investigate and compare a range of countries, develop a better understanding of their place within their immediate locality as well as their role as a global citizen.

We develop children with the following essential characteristics to help them become geographers:

An excellent knowledge and understanding of the world, both human and physical aspects, as well as their own sense of place, using key geographical vocabulary
Be able to identify pattern from a range of sources and compare and contrast different places/areas, giving reasons for their observations using prior knowledge to make connections
A developing sense of curiosity about the world and how and why people and places are different or have changed
The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate events in the news linked to their learning by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry

Planning is flexible to the learners needs and can run over a course of a few days. There will be a key task which has variations of this task to support and scaffold and to deepen learning. Children are encouraged to self-select the tasks depending on their confidence level.

Geographical language is scaffolded in each class with key vocabulary displayed on the working wall. Teachers model the use of this language in their teaching.

We also strongly believe that within our curriculum skills should be developed alongside knowledge. Therefore we have a set of core skills at the centre of our curriculum which underpin everything we do. These build progressively as the children move through the school.

To seek out and enjoy challenges
To ask questions to extend thinking
To collaborate with others
To overcome barriers by trying out alternative and adapting or developing ideas
To assess themselves and others
To show commitment and perseverance
To connect ideas and experiences in different ways
To generate ideas and explore possibilities.

Geography Curriculum Impact

Assessments are made by the teachers continuously and used to plan subsequent lessons. Tapestry is used within EYFS to record observations and assessments. This shares learning with parents and we encourage parents to share learning from home through this platform. Live marking within lessons drives immediate feedback and adaptations to learning. If feedback is given after the lesson, children are expected to respond to the marking during the following session. Teachers track individual progress on assessment sheets which identify children not achieving Age Related Expectations and those exceeding them. This provides information for the pitch of teaching in the next Geography term, and highlights areas that could be covered during the other terms where appropriate.