Geography
Long Term Plans
Action Plans
Geography Intent
At Walworth Primary School, we aim to significantly improve the quality of all of our children’s lives’ by delivering a rich and varied curriculum. We ensure our Geography curriculum is fully inclusive of all children in order for them to gain the knowledge and understanding to help them make sense of the world around them.
We recognise that many of our children have had limited exposure to the world around them which makes Geography a key elelment of our curriculum. At Walworth we aim for a high quality Geography curriculum where pupils progressively gain the knowledge and skills (substantive), understanding (disciplinary knowledge) to be confident and able Geographers. Our teaching equips pupils with substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge about their own locality, country and world, considering diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Walworth Primary and beyond.
The Geography curriculum is well-planned and coherent. It recognises a child’s prior learning and builds upon this. The curriculum plan has been developed in accordance with the National Curriculum . We wish pupils to acquire skills for life, so that they have an understanding of a range of places, people, resources and natural and human environments together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. We also want children to develop geographical skills, collect and analyse data; use maps and globes, aerial photographs and digital mapping to enable them to identify countries, continents and oceans. The curriculum also makes suggestions to give geography a local flavour by studying the geography of County Durham. At Walworth Primary School our aim is for children to have positive experiences of education at school. We want children to engage in learning and for them to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We want children to explore geography not only in the classroom but through the use of fieldwork and educational visits. We want to develop the children to become geographers.
Geography Implementation
At Walworth Primary School the Geography Curriculum has been carefully planned to provide breadth, balance and continuity. It was designed after consultation with staff and in line with the National Curriculum. It is a clearly sequenced curriculum which is well understood by the whole staff team.
Learning is planned around and implemented through the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum on a two-year curriculum cycle that allows for regular revisiting and reinforcement of the curriculum content at a differentiated level and ensures progression. The lessons for each year group cover geography at a local level in the first term where children look at their locality and the area around school. Learning then progresses to cover the UK in the Spring and worldwide in the Summer term. On occasions and depending on cohorts, this generic coverage may take place at different rates. Learning through first-hand experiences is of upmost importance to the children to make it as relevant as possible, aiding understanding. Children will gradually widen their sense of scale, from small and local, to large and global.
In EYFS Geography is intergrated throughout the curriculum, making a significant contribution to the ELG in relation to Understanding the World. Geographical skills are thaught throughout the year, making cross-curricular links where appropriate. At this point in their education, children rely and respond to first hand experiences and practical activities. Daily weather observations are made and children are encouraged to discuss the weather in relation to the season. Celebrations and festivals from other cultures around the world are celebrated. Regular forest school activities and visits around the local area ensure children become familiar with their local environment.
In Key Stage 1, pupil’s develop knwoeldge about their locality, the UK and the world. They learn basic geographical vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and use some geographical skills, including first-hand experiences to enhance their locational awareness.
Throughout Key Stage 2, children extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area and UK to include Europe, North and South America and wider global features. Children extend the knowledge learnt in KS1 around physical and human features and continue to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
There are a range of lessons for each year group with a clear learning intent. It gives guidance to the geographical knowledge pupils are to acquire; understanding of similarities and differences, use of geographical information; fieldwork and geographical skills and geographical communication. It gives advice on possible misconceptions and key vocabulary to use. Within this, the vocabulary and key skills being used in the lessons are identified to ensure children understand which lessons they are working on. We use a planned timetable to enable children to become immersed in their learning for the half term geography is being taught (alternating with History). To aid teachers in their subject knowledge all medium term plans contains the national curriculum reference and an appendicies of resources.
Geography Impact
At Walworth Primary School the geography curriculum is clearly sequenced and well planned. This results in fun, engaging and high quality geographical education. It gives opportunities for memory recall and long term learning by revisiting prior learning regularly where children develop a deeper understanding of their locality and the world in which they live. The quality of children’s learning is evident in work in geography books, photos of visits and when talking to the children. Children are exposed to a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs. Children begin to understand the connections between the human and physical geographical features and how they interlink but are also independent features. This enables children to deepen their disciplinary knowledge and range of vocabulary associated with geography. Lessons are designed to give pupils a coherent (substantive) knowledge and an understanding of their locality, of the United Kingdon and of the wider world. By focusing on first order concepts such as thinking critically, evaluating and challenging views it deepens children’s knowledge and equips pupils for further learning and adulthood.
We track progress over time using iASEND, an internal tracking tool to evaluate the impact of our practice. iASEND provides opportunity for small step progress so teachers are confident that children understand the depth of learning as we as the ‘new learning as they move across the year group. It helps teachers to explore next steps of learning opportunities with an accurate planning focus that puts the child at the heart of the assessment. This means that we look at the practices taking place to determine whether they are appropriate, related to our goals and likely to produce results in the long run. We use lesson observations to see if the pedagogical style matches our expectations and relates to the long term plan.
As children progress through school, they develop a deeper knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider world.
