Blackfell Primary School
Geography
Intent
At Blackfell Primary School, Geography education should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Geography; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of geographical concepts, knowledge and skills; and for the children to develop a love for Geography. Furthermore, we aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain 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 (The 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England).
Geography teaching at Blackfell Primary School has a wide application to everyday life, teaching the children to enjoy learning about the world and to have a better understanding of how people live in different locations.
The aims of teaching Geography in our school are:
- to inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about the world
- to enable children to know about the location of the world’s continents, countries, cities, seas and oceans.
- to develop in children the skills of interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- to help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes its location and can change over time
- to provide opportunities to study mathematics across the curriculum through Geography lessons
Based on the Rosenshine Principles by providing instructional support; teaching new material in manageable amounts; good use of modelling; helping pupils when they have made errors and providing for sufficient practice and review we ensure that the children at our school efficiently acquire, rehearse, and connect background knowledge.
Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers
All children will have Quality First Teaching. Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.
Implementation
The Geography curriculum at Blackfell Primary School is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our ‘Blackfell Schemes of Work’. This progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
To support understanding of place, children from KS1 and KS2 will annotate a world map within their Geography books in order to make meaningful links and comparisons using their geographical knowledge and understanding of the world. World maps can be found in all classrooms across the school
When teaching Geography, teachers will follow the children’s interests where appropriate, to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced.
Opportunities are provided, through the units of work studied, to enable children to acquire field work skills, geographical skills and locational knowledge. Every lesson begins with an enquiry question that will be explored. The geographical enquiry aim is to inspire the children and stimulate an interest and curiosity about their immediate surroundings, places in the UK and the wider world, including the communities and people that live within them. Before planning a unit of work, teachers will assess children’s prior knowledge and understanding through questioning and ‘Flash Back Grids’, to ensure work is pitched at the correct level. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement. Teaching subject specific vocabulary is also a key part of our Geography curriculum and this should be displayed within the classroom and updated regularly to reflect the current learning. The vocabulary children will need for that unit is identified on our ‘Blackfell Schemes of Work’ and this builds upon the vocabulary they have learnt in earlier years.
Geography assessment is based on teacher assessment of children and incorporates ‘Locked in Learning’ and end of unit quizzes. During lessons, ‘Braindrops’ are used for children to demonstrate what they have learnt during a lesson. Teachers will also use ‘Retrieval Grids’ within each unit to assess the retention of learning. At the end of each year, the percentage of children working at, above and below the expected standard are identified and reported on the school’s assessment document which is then passed on to the next class teacher as a record of the child’s attainment.
Geography teaching focuses on enabling children to think as geographers. Geography provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of more able pupils through the use of investigations, analysing sources and writing extended pieces. At Blackfell Primary School we provide a variety of opportunities for Geography learning inside and outside the classroom. Every year we have a whole school project where the subject leader and teachers plans fun, engaging activities linked to Geography for the children to complete. The enrichment time also offers an opportunity for parents to engage with the school and join in with their children’s learning.
Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional Geography learning outside the classroom. At Blackfell Primary School, the children have had many opportunities to experience Geography on educational visits. The children explore their local area (including orienteering within the school grounds) to develop their geographical understanding and make comparisons with other locations around the globe. Local museums also provide an opportunity to further develop Geography learning, as well as trips to local woods and coasts and residential trips provide opportunities to develop geographical skills such as map reading and orienteering.
At Blackfell we strive for a Geography education that drives a curiosity and fascination of the world and the people that live here. Building on from previous learning, cohesion across the curriculum should equip pupils with a knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and differing environments. As pupils progress their growing knowledge of the world, it should help them to deepen understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth's features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Impact
Within Geography, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed on investigative learning opportunities to help children gain a coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school. Our Geography curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. Children will deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and how this effects landscapes and environments.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
- Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum
- Marking of written work in books
External measures are also used to measure the impact of our Geography curriculum (for example Walk to School weeks).
Mrs. Agar
September 2024
| Name | |
|---|---|
| History and Geography Coverage 2024-2025.pub | Download |
