Geography

Intent

At Warley Primary School, we believe that Geography plays an important part in providing children with exciting opportunities to explore the world in which we live, the people that live there and the impact that people have on their environment. Through the Geography curriculum, we aim to inspire children, address their curiosities about the Earth and apply ideas to new and changing settings.

 The curriculum is designed to excite children about hot topics from around the world through substantial links with Education for Social Responsibility, as we believe that Geography should be concerned with ‘real world’ issues and have relevance to the pupils’ lives. It is our aim for Geography to build children’s locational knowledge both locally and globally and to make progress in their understanding of the world with the use of various maps and atlases.

 Warley Primary recognises how Geography can promote an inclusive learning environment through investigative lessons, fieldwork opportunities and collaborative tasks. We seek to support all children in developing their interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and physical and human processes. The curriculum provides opportunities for individuals to develop particular expertise and passion for the subject so they can make informed decisions about continuing with Geography as they move to secondary school.

Implementation

Geography at Warley Primary School is taught in the first half term in Autumn, Spring and Summer. Therefore, each year group has three separate topics throughout the year, linked closely to their national curriculum objectives. Particular schemes of work have been chosen to ensure a wide range of topics are covered and year group teachers have opportunities to feed back on how successful and engaging the topics are, in order to inform future selections.

 To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive both throughout the whole school and individual year groups. We have detailed overviews of how locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical Geography and geographical skills and fieldwork progress in our chosen topics and can therefore ensure all areas of the curriculum are being delivered. Despite planning and resources being provided, teachers are encouraged and supported in adapting lessons to suit the individual needs of their class. At the beginning of each topic children are able to convey what they already know as well as what they would like to find out. This then informs the planning and ensures lessons are relevant and take into account different starting points.

 Geography teaching focuses on enabling the children to question, explore, investigate and analyse. We believe Geography can contribute greatly to other areas of the curriculum and therefore we frequently find opportunities to produce extended pieces of writing to enhance literacy within the school. There are significant links with Education for Social Responsibility (E.S.R) allowing ‘real life’ Geography to have even more prominence at Warley.

 During the year, teachers plan an external visit for their pupils to focus on fieldwork skills. Regular visits to our local woods enable children to immerse themselves in their immediate environment, carry out investigations such as river studies and explore a range of maps to support orienteering activities. In addition, whole school curriculum days in Geography help raise the profile of the subject and create positive attitudes and engagement.

Click here to see our Geography Curriculum Overview. Whole School Geography Curriculum Overview

Please find the Geography Knowledge and Skills Progression Grid here.

Impact

Outcomes in Curriculum Books evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum and demonstrate progression in key skills throughout the year groups. We focus on progression of knowledge and vocabulary and therefore expect children to be able to demonstrate this both in written evidence, through discussions, practical tasks and informal assessments. As they move through Warley Primary, children will deepen their understanding of human and physical Geography and be able to make comparisons both locally and globally.

 We measure the impact of our curriculum in a number of ways:

• End of unit quizzes
• Tracking of individual attainment against national curriculum objectives following each topic (Target Tracker)
• Images and videos of practical learning
• Pupil perception interviews about their learning experiences
• Book monitoring
• Moderation staff meetings to scrutinise planning and books to create an open dialogue between teachers
• Marking of written work in line with core areas of the curriculum
• Annual reporting of standards in the subject
• Tracking progress of attainment through previous years
• Links with secondary schools to identify areas for improvement and strength