St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School

Geography Curriculum Statement

Intent

We want our geography curriculum to inspire in pupils a curiosity and interest towards  the world and its people. To be curious about how the world has changed and the impact of these changes. To look beyond their own location and develop an understanding of the vastness of the world.

We believe that the teaching of geography gives pupils an understanding of the world around them, its environments, places near and far, and the processes that create and affect themIt is a subject in its own right and the children learn best when it is approached in this way. Geography is not reduced or diluted by a focus on other curriculum areas.

We will focus our Geography teaching on these main strands – these are the building blocks for our teaching: 

  • locational knowledge
  • place knowledge
  • physical and human processes
  • geographical skills and fieldwork.

What  we want our children to learn:

  • To teach the National Curriculum minimum expectations for key stages 1–2
  • Help pupils be better at Geography by defining our  ‘core’ content – this is our substantive knowledge – which we want pupils to know and remember from particular topics so we can focus clearly on what we want the children to remember and know – this is the knowledge of Geography  –place, locational, human, physical and environmental knowledge.–
  • Plan opportunities for pupils to learn  disciplinary knowledge over time so pupils will study specific examples of how Geographers work to gather evidence, how they consider evidence to make reasons and decisions. How they think and interact with the world around them through carrying out fieldwork, and by collecting and interpreting data 
  • Plan for opportunities so that pupils grow in knowledge in map reading progressively through their time at school
  • To give breadth to pupils’ learning by creating opportunities for pupils to build their knowledge of a wide range of historical places, events and periods.
  • Support pupils to transfer knowledge learned in one topic so they can use it in other topics.
  • Enable all pupils to access the curriculum and ensure that this is not reduced or minimised for pupils with SEND
  • Improve children’s knowledge and use of geographical vocabulary
  • To learn the National Curriculum minimum expectations for key stages 1–2
  • To help them make progress by  ensuring that learning builds from what pupils already know to help children learn more and remember more and build in systems to help children do this
  • For children to  learn purposefully in EYFS to give them  security in their learning so it can be built upon as they enter KS1.
  • To learn from  a balanced  curriculum with content focused on  physical and human geography processes.
  • To provide opportunities for pupils to learn important processes such as fieldwork. These are planned to give children opportunities to learn how a geographer works

We want the geography curriculum at our school to enable children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.

We want the prior content that pupils learn to be remembered to enable them to understand and know more difficult concepts and to use their previous learning to help them with more complex concepts and thinking.

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, equipping them well for further education and beyond.

Implementation

Children start on their geography educational  journey in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). We focus on the Understanding of the World ‘people, culture and communities’ and ‘natural world’ strands as this  sets out clear identifiable geographical knowledge that children are to learn. In the early years, children begin to acquire some of the geographical vocabulary that they will build on through the rest of their learning

 

Clear and Consistent approach to pedagogy

Consistent approach to teaching – our model for learning

 

Retrieval and Recall

Recall tasks are used to check existing knowledge at the beginning of each Geography topic; allowing opportunities for key knowledge to be reviewed by the children and rigorously checked and consolidated by the teacher. Each unit of study draws upon our children’s prior learning and new content is introduced in a carefully planned and logical sequence, allowing them to build upon what they already know.

Vocabulary Development  – the teaching of vocabulary

All curriculum plans focus on the structured, progressive understanding of vocabulary. Lessons have a clear focus on predetermined vocabulary which is modelled and taught by staff.

Checking for understanding – looking for Misconceptions

Effective Questioning:  questioning from the teacher enables them to check for understanding and address any misconceptions during lessons. This enables quality formative assessment. 

Summarising: asking children to summarise their understanding of a particular historical event or concept can assess understanding, whilst allowing for any misconceptions to be immediately addressed.

Justifying: asking children to provide an opinion on a given historical issue and then allowing them to justify and explain their answers using their acquired historical knowledge and reasoning.

Live marking : enables teachers to check for understanding and provide immediate feedback for pupils.

Explain and Modelling

High quality Geography teaching requires clear & concise  teacher explanations and explicit modelling of skills

In all lessons, teacher explanations should be  supported by strong subject knowledge.

Disciplinary knowledge & historical skills, such as source analysis and evaluation should be made explicit to children and then skillfully modelled in a step by step format.

Children should then be provided with the opportunity to implement these historical skills independently

 

Scaffolding 

 

Teachers plan scaffolds for learning to support the children who need it. Scaffolding is the temporary support that is removed when it is no longer required’, providing ​‘enough support so that pupils can successfully complete tasks that they could not yet do independently’. A teacher may show the thought processes they go through and model expected outcomes. The teacher would also anticipate likely mistakes. All staff Teachers and Teaching Assistants have had training in how best to support children with effective scaffolding.

 

Applying Learning

Teaching needs to move pupils so they have the knowledge to work independently. Teaching is often modelled around the I do, We Do, You do model.

Pupils require the opportunity to apply the knowledge or practise the historical skills they have been taught.

Pupils should be encouraged and given the opportunity to work independently and apply what they have learned and develop their skills whenever possible.

 

Planned Progress in Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge

Our curriculum plans focus on the development of knowledge:

  • their knowledge about geography – ‘substantive knowledge’
  • their knowledge about how Geographers work ‘disciplinary knowledge’

All of our planning is built around the acquisition and development of this knowledge so it is an integral part of our teaching and learning.

Avoiding Cognitive Overload

Planning priorities key learning within lessons so pupils are not overloaded and recall tasks enable pupils to use previous learning so they can connect concepts and secure their understanding.

 

Reading through Geography 

Age appropriate texts are chosen to develop an understanding of geographical content, allowing children to develop their appreciation of locational detail, human and physical processes. Our bespoke plans help pupils to appreciate the geographical context of the texts they read. New vocabulary is explicitly taught by: read, hear, say, define, apply, connect,analyse.  Words are revisited through knowledge organisers and retrieval slides to support children in retaining vocabulary overtime so that they can commit it to their long term memory.  This is presented in a range of way

Inclusion and Ambition 

All pupils are entitled to a broad Geography curriculum. Any adaptations made to support pupils’ learning in Geography usually should not be to the overall curriculum content, but rather to how the content is taught. In summary we try, where possible, to adapt the tasks and the activities so all children learn the same content.

Breadth & Depth

The curriculum builds progressively in terms of conceptual understanding and the generative learning of substantive knowledge.

Place 

Location

Physical

Human

Environmental

 

Building from the foundations made in EYFS

The teaching of Geography begins in EYFS following a topic based approach.To help children we focus on a few concepts that are particularly important in their future learning in Geography. Children do not, at this age, need comprehensive or complex knowledge of concepts. Early familiarity with these concepts will allow children to access the curriculum as they develop through the school. 

SEND

Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) have the greatest need for excellent geography teaching and are entitled to provision that supports achievement at, and enjoyment of, school.At times we should modify our  teaching approaches to support pupils with Special educational needs and/or disabilities There is a need for all pupils to share the same curriculum, with the same level of geographical knowledge that pupils should know wherever possible. We ensure all pupils have access to high quality teaching by: flexible grouping; cognitive and metacognitive strategies;  explicit instruction; using technology; and scaffolding

Teaching Assistants

Teaching assistants make a major contribution to geography. They do this through their support for children as individuals, as groups and as classes.  Following the EFF research on scaffolding, research has shown that improving the nature and quality of TAs’ talk to pupils can support the development of independent learning skills, which are associated with improved learning outcomes. TAs are trained to avoid prioritising task completion and instead concentrate on helping pupils develop ownership of tasks.TAs should aim to give pupils the least amount of help first. They should allow sufficient wait time,so pupils can respond to a question or attempt the stage of a task independently. TAs should intervene appropriately when pupils demonstrate they are unable to proceed.

Assessment 

Staff use formative and summative assessment to support learning. In lesson checks are a strong feature so teachers can support pupils and summative assessment helps identify common weaknesses over time so these can be addressed. Ongoing marking of books, with each objective assessed: the teacher will tick three for greater depth, twice for a secure understanding, once for developing and a dot used for emerging.

  • Grades are inputted into termly trackers, which produce an analysis for subject leaders, broken down by gender, PP and SEND
  • Curriculum leader, supported by SLT, moderate grades against the evidence, alongside discussions with class teachers and a selection of pupils

Our curriculum has ambition for all so that all can learn.  We have a specific  curriculum design, where new knowledge is broken down and introduced sequentially,  so it can support all pupils to learn scientific concepts. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

CPD

Teachers have been well supported through professional development and are therefore confident and ambitious for pupils giving Geography such a high profile within school.

The bespoke curriculum is designed by our lead teachers to ensure that teaching equips 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. Pupils are encouraged to make links and recognise differences between the key areas they study and their local environment.  As pupils progress through the school, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. 

We have planned our geography curriculum around geographical themes, which children study in Geography lessons. We do not teach in a topic based approach, except in EYFS. Geography may drive other areas of learning eg Art but geography is definitely planned as a separate subject so we ensure all of the areas of study of the National Curriculum can be taught so that children learn the knowledge they need to.

Why is EYFS different?

To help children we focus on a few concepts that are particularly important in their future learning in Geography. Children do not, at this age, need comprehensive or complex knowledge of concepts. Early familiarity with key concepts will allow children to access the curriculum as they develop through the school.

Children start on their geography education journey in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). We focus learning on the ‘people, culture and communities’ and ‘natural world’ strands as this  sets out clear identifiable geographical knowledge that children are to learn. In the early years, children begin to acquire some of the geographical vocabulary that they will build on through the rest of their learning.

In Key Stage 1, Geography  is taught in separate blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning and so that the skills taught are embedded.  As children progress into Key Stage 2, we combine Geography and geography together, allowing the children to delve deeper into their learning and to further explore the world around them, the changes that have happened over time and the impact this is having on life today.  

The school’s own context is also considered, with opportunities for visits to places of historical interest and learning outside the classroom also identified and embedded in practice.  Visits to the local area and , such as the use of maps and photographs also support contextualised learning, as well as the acquisition of key knowledge.

The Geography provision is also well resourced and specific resources are mapped to specific year groups and topics to support effective teaching and learning. The local area is fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.

 

Impact

 

Outcomes in Geography books,  evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge relating to each of the identified national curriculum strands, as appropriate to key stage; locational knowledge, place knowledge and human and physical geography. This is in addition to the development and application of key skills, supported by fieldwork.

 

Over time, pupils within school get better at Geography  – they know more and learn more.. All the areas of study  within the National Curriculum are planned and taught so that the children have the knowledge ofGeography  and the disciplinary Knowledge to help them succeed in KS3. 

When children start their school journey , they instantly  gain an understanding and appreciation of their local area and as they progress through school they deepen their understanding of its place within the wider geographical context. 

Outcomes in EYFS are strong as pupils develop the knowledge necessary in   ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year so they are ready to have this knowledge  extended when they begin KS1.

The school’s pedagogical approach helps children remember key knowledge. The key knowledge is identified in planning and followed by teachers as a focal point for learning. Recall is an integral part of every lesson and ensures prior knowledge is secure to enable pupils to make connections in their learning and then they can build upon it.

Planning is followed by staff and pupils therefore learn key knowledge in our planned topics is built upon over time: they develop greater knowledge of Geography and the component parts over time.

The school’s professional development of staff has improved learning for pupils. Planning is bespoke, written by the school for our children and we have been able to model and revise our curriculum over time as our approach is now embedded.  This is not a new , bought in curriculum, but it is a purpose made curriculum which has developed and been refined over time. Tasks are purposefully chosen and layered if necessary so they clearly develop secure knowledge and progress over time. Key knowledge is clearly taught and followed and teachers regularly check what pupils know so they can adapt their teaching activities to support this drive.

Outcomes in Geography and English books evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. 

Geographical understanding, as well as children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is further supported by the school’s links with international partner schools and this is recognised by the school’s achievement of the British Council’s ‘International School Award’. Green Flag, Eco schools