Geography

Geography at St George's

Intent  

At St Georges we teach a structure and sequence of lessons to help ensure teachers have covered the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum by the end of each academic year.  The content allows for a broader and deeper understanding of the four areas of geography identified in the curriculum, these include: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork.  The structure and sequence of the lessons we deliver will develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places and understanding of the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, along with how they bring about variation and change over time.  We intend to develop children’s curiosity and a fascination of the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  The units we teach offer a range of opportunities for investigating places around the world as well as physical and human processes.  The lessons are intended to improve children’s geographical vocabulary, map skills and geographical facts and provide opportunities for consolidation, challenge and variety to ensure interest and progress in the subject.  By the end of each key stage, every child will have been taught in line with the national curriculum.  

Implementation 

We aim to create and provide a positive attitude to learning and we reinforce a high expectation allowing all children to reach their true potential.  In KS1, children begin to use maps and recognise physical and human features related to the local area, building to using maps to explore the continents and oceans of the world in Year 2.  Further, in Year Two, children will begin to compare where they live to places outside of Europe and ask and answer geographical questions.  In KS2, map skills are developed further using digital maps, more keys and symbols and children begin to use more fieldwork skills.  Our school approach to teaching and learning in Geography involves multiple aspects, these include:

♦Being taught in every year group from Nursery up to Year 6. Geography is split into blocks and is taught every other half term with History being taught the alternate half term to allow for full in depth coverage of the national curriculum, enhancing learning. Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth. 

♦Being designed and taught so that children start with ‘themselves’ and their local area before working out into the UK and the rest of the world as they progress through the school.

♦Providing children with knowledge organisers at the start of each topic which details key information, dates and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and used as a reference document.

♦Supporting children in their ability to know more and remember more. We have regular opportunities to review the learning that has?taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons with use of their knowledge organisers for support. 

♦Reviewing previous learning at the start of each topic and providing children with the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic. By using a KWL grid, children complete it at the beginning of each new topic with what they already know (K) and what they would like to learn (W). Once the topic is completed, the children will fill in what they have learnt (L).  

♦Effectively using educational visits and visitors to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experiences within the Geography curriculum.

♦Regularly providing children with the opportunity for Self or Peer Assessment, which will be used to inform planning and address misconceptions within the lesson, or future lessons.

♦Using educational, immersive displays that answer key questions to help create a rich learning environment for each Geography focus. 

Impact  

We believe that the impact of using PlanIt Geography lessons, as the basis of our curriculum, is that geography learning is loved by teachers and pupils across school.  Teachers have higher expectations and more quality evidence can be presented in books.  All children will use geographical vocabulary accurately and understand the different strands of geography, with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.  Children will begin to make relevant links from geography to other curriculum subjects, such as history and science.  They will improve their enquiry skills and inquisitiveness about the world around them, and their impact on the world.  All children will realise that they have choices to make in the world, developing a positive commitment to the environment and the future of the planet.  Children will become competent in collecting, analysing and communicating a range of data gathered. They will be able to interpret a range of sources of geographical information and they will communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.  All children in the school will be able to speak confidently about their geography learning, skills and knowledge. 

Knowledge Organisers

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