Geography
Intent, Implementation and Impact
Intent:
At the heart of our curriculum lie our school values (respect, responsibility, honesty and pride) and these are reflected in the daily life of school. Topics are informed by the National Curriculum and are sensitive to children’s interests, as well as the context of the local area. Our aim is that, through the teaching of Geography, our pupils:
- are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it
- develop their understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills through investigative fieldwork
- will be inspired to have a curiosity and fascination about the world and people within it
- will have a better 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
Implementation:
At Goat Lees, we plan our curriculum collaboratively utilising the skills and knowledge of the staff. The School Curriculum incorporates the National Curriculum but extends beyond this to include the wider opportunities provided at Goat Lees Primary School.
- Units of work are designed to build upon children’s previous knowledge and skills.
- A progression in skills map has been developed for each year group to ensure the children build on and develop their skills each year.
- Existing knowledge is checked at the start of each new units of work. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children's starting points and takes account of pupil voice.
- In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place using retrieval activities.
- Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each unit of work which details some key information and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and is used as a reference document.
- Lesson content and tasks are designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with our commitment to inclusion.
- An enquiry question is used at the start of a unit of work and then each subsequent lessons to structure pupils thinking. At the end of the unit, pupils will answer the line of enquiry weighing up evidence, knowledge learnt and key geographical facts.
- The local area is fully utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom.
- School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world beyond their locality.
- The layout in books may look like:
A cover page for the unit of work with the key line of enquiry displayed
Knowledge organiser
A world map with the countries studied coloured in
Retrieval activities throughout
Impact:
By the time pupils leave Goat Lees school, they should have developed:
- Knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
- A good understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
- An extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
- The ability to reach clear conclusions and develop reasoned arguments to explain findings.
- Fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
- A passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
- The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.
If you would like to see how our Geography lessons are sequenced throughout the school, please click here for our whole school Geography curriculum. Our teachers then use a medium term planning document to help them plan individual lessons, please click here to see an example of this.
If you would like to see how our Early Years Curriculum links to the Geography curriculum in years 1-6, please click here.