Geography at Pearl Hyde

Intent

Geography is an exciting subject that helps the children to learn about the world, its physical and human features, natural resources and how people interact with its environment. Our geography curriculum encourages children to look closely at the world around them through engaging lessons and broadening children’s real-life experiences both inside and outside of school through educational visits, visitors and exploration. They develop locational and place knowledge, human and physical geography, geographical skills and fieldwork, starting within their locality and then branching out to the wider world. This enables children to become curious, pose questions and seek answers by not only finding and learning about the features but also about different cultures, and what challenges our planet faces which then inspires them to become global, sustainable citizens.

Implementation

We follow a two-year cycle, (A and B) to accommodate the mixed-age classes in Years 1 to 6. As there is one reception class, they follow an annual or yearly programme. We follow the Cornerstones curriculum which has a clearly mapped out overview for the two-year cycle. It provides a skill progression to ensure that skills are taught in a clear sequence building upon previous skills. Geographical skills and knowledge are also taught through other subject areas so that children can see the links and the correlation between different subjects.

Geography is taught as a discrete subject. During the Autumn term, the children study a skills-based topic. In the spring term, geography is the main driver of a topic-based unit for example volcanoes and earthquakes. In the summer term, the curriculum allows us to focus on revision and retrieval of topics covered in that year.

Children experience ‘WOW’ moments which are fun and memorable and usually take place at the start of a topic to enhance a child’s learning by bringing the topic alive: for example, creating a hook; going on visits or having visitors into school. All year groups plan activities to engage the children in the topic being taught.

Each curriculum topic is supported by a knowledge organiser that sets out the key facts and information that children need to use and remember. Key vocabulary, images, technical terms and their meanings are all included in the knowledge organiser.

At the end of each topic, an assessment activity is completed by the children independently so that they can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the topic. During this express stage, the children reflect on their learning and teachers assess what they have learnt and remembered.

Impact

By the time pupils leave Pearl Hyde Primary School, we expect that they should have developed a range of skills including:

• Pupil’s voice shows enthusiasm and curiosity around the subject of geography.
• Understanding the key geographical skills needed to carry out practical tasks, such as map reading, data analysis and fieldwork techniques
• Know about the world’s continents, oceans and countries and how to locate places on a map.
• Know about the natural features of the earth, climate and weather patterns and how these impact the natural world and human activity.
• Know about human activity, how people interact with the environment and impacts the natural world.
• To use tier 3 geographical vocabulary appropriately when discussing what they have learned.
• Children have developed a deeper understanding of the world, encouraging them to become responsible informed and global citizens and appreciate the importance of sustainability and protecting the environment.
• Evidence in children’s books and displays shows that children have developed a range of knowledge and skills across all areas of the geography curriculum.