Geography

Intent:

Geography at Wadworth Primary School is about equipping the children with the skills and knowledge to explore the world we live in.  

Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Through an engaging curriculum and meaningful experiences, we aim to nurture our future geographers and equip them with the knowledge they will need to become mindful citizens of the world.

Our core values provide a platform on which we have built our curriculum offer at Wadworth Primary School. Our Geography curriculum is underpinned by our core values in the following ways:

• Persevering
  • To develop the ability to stick with something, to continue working, to try harder, to not give up.
• Problem solving
  • To develop confident geographers, who are not afraid to ‘have a go’.
• Independence
  • To develop geographers who have the confidence to think and work independently.
  • To develop geographers who are able to independently interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including: maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
• Being attentive (listening)
  • To develop a desire to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.
  • To develop an interest and an understanding of diverse places, people and resources.
• Communicating
  • To develop the ability to apply geographical skills and be able to confidently communicate their findings and a geographical understanding, to a range of audiences.
  • To talk with others about their geographical knowledge.
• Collaborating
  • To support others with a skill you are confident in already.
  • To respect the geography work of others, including their peers.

 Beyond the Subject:

We want our Geography curriculum to help children to;

• See the world from different perspectives
• Recognise the importance of outdoor learning and build a curiosity for learning
• Increase their empathy
• Observe and look closer at the world around them
• See connections in the world

Implementation:

Our Geography curriculum has been structured in a cross-curricular way, to effectively facilitate this and to provide children with the opportunities to enhance their knowledge and understanding of their local area, and the world around them. For each year group, one term in the school year will have a ‘humanities’ focus, with Geography being at the forefront of the children’s learning during some of this time. Geography will also then be covered within class topics throughout the year, linking with other curriculum areas. When covering the ‘humanities’ topics, children will spend a large amount of time learning as geographers and will learn about significant places, people and events that link to Geography, as well as the aspects of the National Curriculum.

The children develop their Geography skills progressively in the following ‘Big Ideas’ areas:

• Humankind – Human features and landmarks, Settlements and land use
• Processes – Climate and Weather, Physical processes
• Investigation – Geographical resources, data analysis, fieldwork
• Materials – Natural and man-made materials
• Nature – Physical features, Environment, Sustainability, World, Location, UK, Position, Maps
• Comparison – Compare and Contrast, Significant Places and Geographical Change

Impact:

The children at Wadworth want to explore the world they live in! They have both the geographical knowledge and the skills that they can apply to other areas of their learning. They will gain a deep understanding of the world we live in, their impact on our world and how they can make a difference to our planet. Looking in their topic books; their knowledge and understanding is clear and progressive year on year. Teachers mainly use formative assessment tools with elements of summative assessment to ensure their judgement, of each child, in geography is accurate.

A key component of assessment is also pupil voice. School leaders use pupil voice as an effective tool to ascertain the pupils’ ability to express themselves through a range of different mediums.