Geography Zone

WELCOME TO THE GEOGRAPHY ZONE!

'A high-quality geography education should 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.'

(National Curriculum 2014)

St Bede’s Geography Curriculum

Intent

At St. Bede's we aim to stimulate all our pupils’ curiosity, respect and pride in their surroundings and the wider world, creating a sense of awe and wonder for the natural world and a respect for the diversity of people and places in it. We endeavour to develop pupils’ competence in geographical skills and an appreciation of the effects of human influence on the environment, challenging them to become global citizens for their future. As a Fairactive school, we want to empower our children with an understanding of the importance of Fairtrade and the impact of climate change on farmers around the world.

Implementation

The National Curriculum provides a programme of study with four areas of substantive knowledge:

Locational Knowledge
Place Knowledge
Human and Physical Geography
Geographical skills and fieldwork

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239044/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Geography.pdf

Our Long Term Plan allocates knowledge and skills from the National Curriculum to each year group to ensure progression. At St Bede’s, the Geography curriculum content is taught through stimulating topics, with an overarching question to promote enquiry and debate.

Geography Long Term Overview
Year Group	Autumn Term	Spring Term	Summer Term
Reception	Where do our Families come from?	What will you see in London?	What will we find in our local woods?
Year 1	What continents and oceans make up our world?	Would you rather live in a hot or cold place?	Where is our school?
Year 2	Where in the world is Mugurameno Village?	What will we see on our journey around the United Kingdom?	What’s in and around our local area?
Year 3	Why is the coast a special place? Would you like to live on a mountain?	Where does all our water come from? Polar regions and rivers
Year 4	Who are our European neighbours?	What makes the Earth angry?	Why should the Amazon rainforest be protected?
Year 5	What makes up North America?	Why is Weaverham a good place to live?	What makes the Northwest unique?
Year 6	Why is London a global attraction?	Why does a place's location in the world affect its climate? What is the future for the Galapagos Islands?

A knowledge organiser for each topic contains the key vocabulary, knowledge and facts to be learnt. Oddizi.com contains plans and resources which teachers draw from to create lessons. Children use the website for independent research. We use Digimaps for schools to support the graphicacy element in Geography.

Lessons promote discussion, collaboration, problem-solving and thinking skills with hands-on activities and experiential learning outside the classroom.There is inclusive access for all children as teachers model and adapt activities and resources.

Place studies which start with around our school in Weaverham and Northwich, increase in scale to regional, national and global level. They are revisited to develop knowledge and understanding. For example, UK is introduced in Y2 with countries and capital cities. In Y3, children learn some counties, regions, rivers and peaks. It is revisited in Y5 as children learn the location and origin of cities and towns and focus on North west and its significant landforms, landmarks, resources and industry.

We make links to other curriculum areas to ensure breadth and depth of learning. An example of this is our texts in English. In Y4, children learn about volcanoes and earthquakes. At the same time, they study the texts: 'The Giant Stirred' and 'Escape from Pompeii'. The rich and technical vocabulary supports the geographical understanding.

'Geography is a subject that contextualises and extends the possibilities for developing and applying language and maths, and enriches understanding of, and in, subjects from science and history to art and design.'

(Geography Association)

Trips and residentials provide enrichment for children. These include London, Lake District, Robinwood in Wrexham, Dee estuary, Anderton boat lift and Owley Wood.

In KS1, we have a pair of resident bears who visit places with the children outside of school. Their adventures are recorded and shared in a scrapbook.

Impact

Our dynamic curriculum is planned to enable pupils to develop their fluency in global knowledge, their understanding of the interconnection between people, places and processes and their competency in the language of Geography. We measure the impact of this through assessment for learning and informal summative assessment, pupil voice, book scrutinies and lesson drop-ins. This will enable pupils to continue to KS3 as informed and active Geographers.

What our pupils say:

" Geography is finding out about different places in the world like countries and cities. I can't remember them all but it's fun!"

"We used Digimaps to find out where we live."

" I remember we made a map on the floor of landmarks."

"I like map reading and coordinates."

" We learnt about not harming the environment too much- like solar energy."

"A volcano makes a stinky smell like rotten eggs if it's about to erupt."