Intent

The National Curriculum for Geography states: A high-quality geography education should inspire pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils 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.

At Castor, geography lessons allow our pupils to be inspired, engaged and curious about the world in which they live, both locally and globally. The curriculum we deliver is broad and balanced, encouraging children to both ask and answer questions to deepen their knowledge and familiarise themselves with key vocabulary. Where possible, we allow strong cross-curricular links with, for example, the texts used in English and links with Art and Science to ensure the children’s learning is embedded within a theme. In EYFS, a key element of ‘Knowledge and Understanding of the World,’ is for children to begin to discover the world around them and develop their understanding of other people and how they can be different from them.  In KS1 and KS2, this initial learning is built upon and their geographical skills and knowledge are developed through a range of topics, designed to equip pupils with a diverse understanding of our world.

Implementation

Lessons are planned and delivered in line with our progression of knowledge and skills document. Throughout teaching, staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. There is a strong focus on the use of resources used within lessons, with each class within the school having access to a range of resources to deepen their understanding within different areas of the Geography curriculum. Educational visits and fieldwork are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional learning outside the classroom. The children have many opportunities to experience our local geographical area, and the wider area in year 6, which are critical to enable them to put the skills learnt into practise.

Impact

At Castor, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning, allowing children to leave with a detailed knowledge and breadth of skills across this area of the curriculum. Opportunities for investigative learning opportunities help children develop their own coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school. Our geography curriculum is high quality, well-thought-out and planned to demonstrate progression through the year groups. We want our pupils to finish their time at primary school with curious minds alongside the confidence to use the skills taught, in other environments.  We focus on the development of knowledge and skills and this is measured using a variety of methods which include: assessing children’s knowledge before and after the unit is taught, summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning, images and videos of the children’s practical learning, pupil voice, learning walks and marking of written work in books. The moderation of pupil’s books allows the opportunity for dialogue between teachers to discuss their class’ work.