Geography

Geography

"My geography teacher at school inspired me to a lifelong interest in geography and a curiosity about our world which has stayed with me through my life. Geography is a living, breathing subject, constantly adapting itself to change. It is dynamic and relevant. For me geography is a great adventure with a purpose."

Michael Palin

A Geographer Needs:

An enquiring mind

Observational skills

Fieldwork skills

Mapping and interpretation skills

Analytical Skills

Our Geography curriculum will inspire children to be curious and fascinated about their immediate surroundings and the wider world as we develop their interests in the variety of human and physical conditions on the earth’s surface. We create and foster a sense of wonder about the world inspiring a sense of responsibility and care as we equip children with the skills of critical enquiry and an ability to ask and answer geographical questions.

Overview

The teaching of geography builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum for how children make sense of their physical world and their community by exploring, observing and finding out about people, places and the environment. The children wonder about and question what they can see and where they are and take this curiosity further in continuous provision inside and outside. This is built on in Years 1 and 2 as children begin to broaden their geographical vocabulary about where they live and compare this to another area of the UK and the wider world. Children in KS1 begin to use world maps, simple plans and fieldwork in the local area. In KS2, our children are prepared to build on their locational knowledge, focusing on continents, countries and cities and studying the human and physical geography of these places. Children understand aspects of geography such as time zones, tectonic plate formation, rivers, mountains and volcanoes.

Geography is taught with rigour and focus at Our Lady and All Saints Primary School where teaching staff teach stand alone geography lessons, making thoughtful links between other subjects where possible to deepen understanding and provide relevant context to learning. Our school environment promotes all children to be successful geographers by showcasing work, displaying current and past knowledge and allowing children to explore our wonderful grounds here in Parbold.

Aims

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 and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
- interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

We are fortunate at Our Lady and All Saints to have a forest area which children use throughout the year. Here, they explore their surroundings, record data and create maps. Our children observe the changes in weather and land and use this to inform their learning. Later, in upper KS2, our children benefit from a week's residential in the Lake District where they are fully immersed in the outdoors and have many opportunities to put their prior learning into practice. To build and expand on their learning about cities in KS1, children in KS2 also have the opportunity to visit London. These trips have a long lasting impact on our children's learning and enriches their life experiences.

Teachers at our school understand the theory of cognitive load, which is why our geography curriculum is rooted in essential skills and knowledge with children being able to retrieve key knowledge through various retrieval practice and quizzes. Children take pride in their books and speak to subject leaders confidently about their journey to becoming a geographer.