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Geography

Intent

For children to have knowledge of their locality and locations further afield.
Children know how they can make an environmental difference in the world.

At Carr, we intend to broaden, develop and deepen the children’s understanding of what Geography means in fun and creative ways. Our Geography curriculum is carefully designed to ensure that children gain a deeper understanding of their community and other locations, as well as how they can make an environmental difference in the world. Through an enquiry based approach, we encourage our students to be curious and fascinated for their community and the wider world around them when exploring our big idea questions in order to form a deeper, more meaningful understanding. Children are also introduced to the economic and environmental factors which affect development and sustainability. This will expose the children to the cultural and environmental diversity of the world and will help the children develop into caring and well informed adults of the future. By recapping and building on prior knowledge, children are able to create strong connections between various concepts, allowing them to compare and contrast with ease. Since our key strands are repeated throughout KS2, children build upon substantive knowledge using a range of disciplinary skills and adventurous vocabulary, helping them to understand what it is to be a geographer. We aspire for this to be instilled within our children and therefore become a life-long skill. Children gain a deep rooted respect for the world, by understanding the important roles that we play and the positive and negative impact that we can have on it both as individuals and as a community. As well as class based learning, trips and visitors are vital to help the children get first hand experiences and be able to see things from a more personal perspective. We intend to weave all of these skills and knowledge together to assist the children in developing a cohesive picture of their surroundings and the world around them.

Implementation

In order for children to know and remember more in each area of Geography studied, prior learning is always considered and opportunities for revision of substantive and disciplinary knowledge, as well as key vocabulary are built into each lesson. Through revisiting and consolidating these skills and knowledge, children build on prior knowledge before introducing new skills and challenges. Children have a range of opportunities to experience Geography through engaging activities which encourages them to question, analyse and problem solve to gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. Each lesson ends with a Blooms Taxonomy Question which allows the teacher to assess to what level the outcomes have been met and if further teaching is needed.

How we implement our Geography curriculum:

High quality, sequenced planning ensures all areas of the National Curriculum are covered and that children are building on their prior knowledge.
Activities and teaching is explorative and involves problem solving and investigating in order to encourage the children to delve deeper into the subject.
During each Learning adventure, every year group either goes on a trip or has a visitor in school. This gives the children first hand, practical experiences, helping them to form a deeper understanding of the subject.
Every two years we hold a themed day/week where the children will learn about fieldwork linked to York. The children are given the opportunity to use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans, graphs and digital technologies. As this is completed every other year, the children’s knowledge will be built upon and by the end of year 6 they will have a detailed knowledge and understanding of local fieldwork.
Having a range of resources to allow the children to explore Geography helps to make it more real for them. We use Atlases, globes, compasses, apps and maps on the computer, orienteering lessons, videos and photos.
Planning based around a learning adventure means that there are lots of opportunities for cross curricular learning.
Knowledge organisers are used to present sticky knowledge for the Learning Adventure, which is shared at the start of every lesson and sent home to encourage discussions with parents and carers.
Children produce a range of work in response to that week’s question, which is then presented in a scrapbook. This helps them to consolidate that week’s learning and confidently answer the Blooms Question, as well as being able to answer POP task questions at a later date to show that they have retained that knowledge.
Lessons are taught in a progressive sequence which means that the children are building on prior knowledge to ensure that they have solid foundations. Then they are slowly introduced to new concepts. which allow them to delve deeper into the subject.
Support is provided, when appropriate, by the class teacher, their critical friend or resources within the classroom. Chirping of ideas and good practice by the teacher helps children to stay on task and also gives them good examples to use and adapt.
A piece of key vocabulary is introduced weekly and children are encouraged to use these in their work where possible.

Impact

Children have a passionate and enthusiastic outlook on protecting and looking after our planet.
Children can ask thought-provoking and challenging questions about the world around them.
Children have a deeper understanding of our local area and the world around them.
Children have confidence in using resources such as maps and atlases.

Impact is measured by analysing the quality of the children’s work and Blooms answers throughout the year, which is recorded at the end of each term. Children also complete a POP task a few weeks into the next unit of work to check that they have retained the knowledge. We are continually checking the impact of teaching on learning through lesson drop ins/observations, book and planning scrutinies and pupil and staff voices.