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“The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.” ~ President Barack Obama,
Intent
Geography is essentially about understanding the world we live in. At St. George’s Catholic School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. We aim to ensure that our children leave our school with the inspiration to become global, sustainable citizens. We feel it is important to nurture and encourage natural curiosity to shape children into inquisitive, questioning learners, who look closely at the world around them and begin to be able to interpret what they see. It is our intent to inspire children with interest and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. Our geography curriculum is shaped by our aim to enable all children, regardless of background, ability or additional needs to flourish, to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at St. George’s and also their further education and beyond. Children are given the opportunity to positively progress and build on their skills and understanding across an exciting and rich curriculum, where their confidence to use a range of geographical resources is established.
The children will have many opportunities to revisit and use their prior knowledge. Quality teaching of Geography throughout the school will ensure good progress. Quality resources which will allow the children to discover the world such as: up to date globes and atlases which accurately reflect the world’s changing borders, choices of books and online videos. They will also have frequent opportunities to take part in hands-on fieldwork and opportunities to create and test out their own research projects and surveys.
Implementation
The National Curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:
• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Geographical skills and fieldwork
Our Geography scheme has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each year group. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. Geographical key concepts are woven across all units rather than being taught discretely as seen in the Progression of key geographical concepts.
Our National curriculum coverage document shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the four strands in Key stage 1 and 2. The document also reflects which Development matters statements and Early learning goals are met in each activity within the EYFS units.
The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography.
The two EYFS units provide a solid foundation of geographical skills, knowledge and enquiry for children to transition successfully onto Key stage 1 Geography learning, whilst also working towards the Development Matters statements and Early Learning Goals. These units consist of a mixture of adult-led and child-initiated activities which can be selected by the teacher to fit in with Reception class themes or topics.
Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning. Our enquiry questions form the basis for our Key stage 1 and 2 units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. We have designed these questions to be open-ended with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In attempting to answer them, children learn how to collect, interpret and represent data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.
Each unit contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. Kapow Primary units follow an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National Curriculum. This ensures children will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats.
Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places.
Lessons incorporate various teaching strategies from independent tasks to paired and group work, including practical hands-on, computer-based and collaborative tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Each lesson provides guidance for teachers on how to adapt their teaching to ensure that all pupils can access learning, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are also available if required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Geography is taught each long term for a block of approximately 6 weeks so that we cover three topics a year. For mixed age classes, we follow a two-year rolling programme so that children don’t repeat units whilst ensuring that they cover all aspects of the National Curriculum. During the course of the year, we aim to raise the profile of geography by inviting in visitors into school such as Wessex Water. Our Key Stage 2 children participate in orienteering competitions with other Wiltshire Schools and orienteering often features during our Summer Activities week.
Impact
Our enquiry-based approach to learning will allow teachers to assess children against the National curriculum expectations for Geography. The impact of our scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities.
Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher, which can be used at the start or end of the unit to assess children’s understanding. Opportunities for children to present their findings using their geographical skills will also form part of the assessment process in each unit.
After implementing our Geography scheme, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of skills and knowledge to enable them to study Geography with confidence at Key stage 3. We hope to shape children into curious and inspired geographers with respect and appreciation for the world around them alongside an understanding of the interconnection between the human and the physical.
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Geography scheme of work is that children will:
● Compare and contrast human and physical features to describe and understand similarities and differences between various places in the UK, Europe and the Americas.
● Name, locate and understand where and why the physical elements of our world are located and how they interact, including processes over time relating to climate, biomes, natural disasters and the water cycle.
● Understand how humans use the land for economic and trading purposes, including how the distribution of natural resources has shaped this.
● Develop an appreciation for how humans are impacted by and have evolved around the physical geography surrounding them and how humans have had an impact on the environment, both positive and negative.
● Develop a sense of location and place around the UK and some areas of the wider world using the eight-points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and keys on maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs and digital mapping.
● At the start and of each unit, the children complete a short low-stakes quiz and answer questions on a knowledge catcher. At the end of the unit, the children retake the quiz and revisit the knowledge catcher to add to what they had originally written in a different colour.
● Identify and understand how various elements of our globe create positioning, including latitude, longitude, the hemispheres, the tropics and how time zones work, including night and day.
● Present and answer their own geographical enquiries using planned and specifically chosen methodologies, collected data and digital technologies.
● Meet the ‘Understanding the World’ Early Learning Goals at the end of EYFS, and the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Geography by the end of Year 2 and Year 6.
Primary National Curriculum - Geography
Geography National Curriculum Coverage
Geography Progression of Knowledge and Skills
Progression of Geographical Concepts
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