Geography

Intent

At Hoo St Werburgh Primary School, we seek to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world by delivering an exciting and enquiry led curriculum. We strive to use a range of resources to ensure that learning is hands-on and gives children as many real-life experiences as possible. Our progressive geography curriculum enables all children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We inspire our children to be inquisitive and to question the information they are presented with, in order to further their geographical understanding. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of their locality and the wider world, as well as their place in it. Teachers, where possible, integrate Geography throughout their curriculum, using a mastery approach to consolidate skills and knowledge taught in previous years.

The National Curriculum for Geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine including their defining physical and human characteristics
• Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world
•  Are competent in the geographical skills needed to collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork
• Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs
• Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length in the Upper KS2.

Implementation

Geography acts as a driver subject for many of the learning journeys across KS1 and KS2. Learning is centred around a key question, which the children are on a journey to discover more about throughout the term. Using a progressive curriculum, we ensure pupils build upon prior knowledge and skills through revisiting previously taught geographical concepts, including place knowledge, physical & human geography and geographical fieldwork. Key (sticky) knowledge is identified and lessons ensure this is taught and reviewed regularly throughout the term before children complete an end of term assessment to showcase their knowledge and how they are able to apply it. Long- and medium-term plans are in place to ensure that previous learning is built upon, as well as ensuring the national curriculum is covered and there is sufficient depth and coverage of knowledge and progression across and within year groups. Our geography curriculum begins with children learning about their local area and their impact upon it before looking further afield to learn about different continents and cultures as they move through the school.  Teachers will use a range of resources such as Kapow, Hamilton and Corner Stones to create a bespoke curriculum relevant to our children and their lives. Working practically using atlases, maps, compasses and globes is central to our approach, as well as fieldwork trips and inviting visitors in to inspire our children. 

Impact

The impact of geography is monitored in various ways, through flashbacks, end of learning journey double page spreads, observations, pupil voice and book looks. Our broad and progressive curriculum ensures that pupils leave our school 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 a result of this, data will show that the majority of children are working at or above the expected level. Our children will have a great understanding about the area they live in and what makes it special. We hope our geography curriculum motivates children to want to learn about the world and inspires them to travel and gain new experiences.