Geography at Shanklea Primary School
Pupils at Shanklea are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. Geography is, by nature, an inquiry based subject, which develops an understanding of key concepts, knowledge and skills. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills, which will support children in the outside world. At Shanklea we ensure that our children 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. One of our key aims is to inspire children to develop a 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.
For each unit the children are taught and assessed on sticky knowledge and sticky vocabulary. Key Stage 1 are assessed on 5 pieces, Lower Key stage 2 assessed on 7 pieces and upper key stage 2 assessed on 10 pieces. Every lesson the children will complete revisit tasks in order to conslidate their knowledge.
At the end of the unit the children are assessed on their substantive and disciplinary knowledge in an end of unit assessment. Their knowledge is then tracked and any misconceptions or key knowledge will be included in their following unit as sticky knowledge revisits.
Our curriculum is shaped by our school moto and values which aims to work together to ensure we all achieve more. We teach alongside the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. This can be seen in our geography scheme of work. The children are fully aware of the geography concepts covered in our learning Navigation, Diversity and Impact. The children are aware which concept is covered in each lesson and can talk about this.
The local area is fully utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practise. School trips and fieldwork are detrimental, to provide quality first hand experiences, which enhance children’s understanding of the world beyond their locality.
By the time children leave Shanklea they will: Have an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like. Geographical understanding, as well as children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Children will have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary. Be fluent in complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques. We encourage our children to have 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 and be a true geographer.
Curriculum
Early Years
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, geography is included as part of Understanding the World. The children learn to investigate similarities and differences, the local environment and cultures and beliefs, fostering the skills essential to developing historical understanding. This is set out in the early year’s curriculum as children needing to:
● observe, find out about, and identify features in the place they live and the natural world;
● Begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people;
● Find out about their environment, and talk about those features they like and dislike.
Key Stage 1
During Key Stage 1, pupils investigate their local area and a contrasting area in the United Kingdom or abroad, finding out about the environment in both areas and the people who live there. They also begin to learn about the wider world. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions about people, places and environments, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps and photographs.
Key Stage 2
During Key Stage 2, pupils investigate a variety of people, places and environments in the United Kingdom and abroad, and start to make links between different places in the world. They find out how people affect the environment and how they are affected by it. Pupils carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs and ICT. Children will develop geographical enquiry skills, including asking geographical questions, collecting and recording information and identifying different views. They will acquire the appropriate practical skills associated with Geography, including using suitable vocabulary, fieldwork techniques and maps, plans and atlases. Pupils will use secondary sources of information with accuracy, including aerial photographs, satellite images, etc. As well as making its own distinctive contribution to the school curriculum, geography contributes to the wider aims of primary education. Teachers will ensure that links between subjects are maximized, including history, science and computing.
Organisation
As we have mixed-age classes, we do the medium-term planning on a two-year rotation cycle. In this way, we ensure that children have complete coverage of the National Curriculum but do not have to repeat topics. See long term plan for Geography on the website. We use Kapow as a basis to our planning however adapt these to suit the needs of children in our class.
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural opportunities
Geography is an excellent vehicle for developing children’s learning in this area. Discussions about the use of the world’s resources and the impact of different events on the lives of local people deepen the children’s ability to understand and empathise with fellow humans across the globe. The opportunities to explore ‘putting yourself in someone else’s shoes’ abound in the study of geography and it is embraced during the teaching wherever possible.
Whilst knowing more is an integral part of continuity and progression it is nevertheless just one element of it and merely sequencing subject content will not ensure on its own that our pupils become better geographers. To ensure continuity and progression for all pupils the curriculum is carefully organised from EYFS – Year 6 to ensure that our pupil’s knowledge and understanding of geography develops because:
● Expected subject outcomes in terms of developing as a young geographer increase in complexity and level of challenge as detailed above and are used as the starting point for all planning of content delivery and learning and teaching enquiries;
● There is increasing breadth and scale of study through the curriculum moving progressively from personal experiences to local, regional, national and global perspectives informed by the guidance of the National Curriculum;
● The curriculum becomes progressively more complex developing from discrete facts and bodies of information to conceptual awareness and generalised knowledge about more abstract ideas;
● The mastery and application of geographical tools and skills occurs in more precise and complex contexts;
● The focus of what pupils learn becomes gradually more issues based enabling them to explain links, patterns and processes and be more informed and mature in their thinking and self-reflection in terms of recognising the importance of attitudes and values about contested matters;
SEND Pupils
At Shanklea we recognise the need to cater for children with special educational needs. Work is differentiated to assist in children’s learning in terms of:
● learning outcomes
● tasks
● teaching methods
● resources
Tasks can be broken down into small steps, giving children achievable goals. Vocabulary can be pre-taught. Word banks and visual cues can be provided, using symbols and words. Activities should reinforce children’s understanding of the subject. The more able children should be given open-ended tasks and opportunities for further research and more challenging study.
Trips
All year groups have trips planned linked to at least one of their topics throughout the year.