Geography

Intent

At Littleham C of E Primary School we are very proud of our Geography Curriculum. It has been thoughtfully developed to ensure children explore the relationship and interactions between people and the environments in which they live at the personal, local, national and global scale – enabling our children to make better sense of the world in which they live and to be more informed and enlightened citizens going into the future. Our whole-school geography curriculum is:

Aspirational: Our high-expectations in Geography teaching and learning cultivates our children’s curiosity about the world, its inhabitants and its processes; enabling all our children to fulfil their individual potential and appreciate the value of Geography as a subject in the 21st century.

Engaging: Our children develop their geographical understanding and a curiosity about the world through enquiry-based learning. The key concepts of ‘place’, ‘space’, ‘scale’, ‘change’, ‘interconnection’, ‘environment’ and ‘sustainability’ underpin these enquiries, with children asking increasingly nuanced questions and gaining a deeper understanding of what it means to think like a geographer. We’ve selected enquiries that are relevant to our local community, that go beyond the familiar and engage pupils in studying topical issues through contemporary case studies. Geography learning is enriched with the sharing of stories and non-fiction texts, ICT, high-quality resources, outdoor learning, visitors, trips and purposeful field work.

 Logical, Broad and Balanced: Learning and enquiries provide the full entitlement of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum and, importantly, have been sequenced to support geographical understanding. There is an even proportion of physical and human investigations and, whilst acknowledging our local community, a mixture of local, national and global issues. To further learning about physical and human geography, key geographical concepts, such as ‘agriculture’, ‘sustainability’ or ‘migration’, are taught within contemporary, real-world contexts and are revisited and developed throughout our curriculum. This means our children develop a more secure subject knowledge, achieve a deeper understanding of key concepts and a contextualised appreciation for what it means to think and work like a geographer.

 Progressively More Challenging: Our Geography Curriculum includes and builds from the ‘Understanding of the World’ established in the Early Years, ensuring continuity in learning as children transition into the National Curriculum. Throughout our curriculum, children build upon prior learning and encounter more complex subject knowledge using increasingly sophisticated critical thinking skills, geographical techniques and field working skills.

Inclusive: All children are entitled to our full Geography Curriculum - including those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). We scaffold, personalise and differentiate activities to enable all children to access it in its entirety. Teachers use ‘assessment for learning’ to support and extend children - ensuring maximum progress is made and everyone achieves their full potential.

Through our aspirational, inspiring and increasingly challenging enquiry-led learning, our children leave equipped with geographical skills and a secure geographical knowledge and understanding of the 21st century world in which they live! They appreciate the diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments that constitute Earth and the processes, interactions and dependencies that have, and continue to shape, our world. Our children see themselves as active citizens of the world and, ultimately, really value their geography learning!

Geographical Progression

The National Curriculum states that, ‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity & fascination about the world & its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources & natural & human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical & human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical & human processes, & of the formation & use of landscapes & environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding & skills provide the frameworks & approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected & change over time.’

With this in mind, we have produced a comprehensive Geography Skills Progression document to ensure that our pupils are able to naturally build on their learning, topic by topic and year by year. This focuses in on subject knowledge and disciplinary knowledge which then includes fieldwork and geographical skills.

Implementation

Children in Key Stage One and Key Stage Two will receive the full entitlement of the National Curriculum (NC) and we ensure this is delivered through our enquiry-led geography curriculum. Our geography curriculum is based on the expertise of the Connected Geography units, which we have carefully crafted into two-year rolling programmes to meet the needs of our mixed-age classes. We have purposefully selected and sequenced topics, through and across key stages, to build cumulatively on prior learning and to progressively further knowledge and skills development. Geography learning is organised into half-termly topics (that alternate with history), which allows children to ‘dive- deeper’ into their learning and limits the time between geography topics - helping children to retain their learning. Opportunities for cross-curricular learning are made whenever appropriate, for example in geography lessons age-appropriate mathematics is used to collect and present information. Within other subjects, children are encouraged to make links to their previous geography learning – be it key concepts, a particular case study or utilising map skills. This is particularly important during half-terms where geography is not discretely taught, as in doing so our children are developing their understanding of key concepts, recalling key knowledge and applying their skills.

 Our enquiry-based geography topics are based around an engaging ‘big question’ which captures children’s interests and gives purpose to learning. Rather than giving children all the answers, through their topic learning children embark on a journey of exploration! Each enquiry has a clear learning journey, with an ‘elicitation task’ at the start of a topic to identify a child’s prior knowledge and any misconceptions. Our children are invited to share what they would like to find out during the enquiry – with teachers understanding that asking questions is central to geographical enquiry. Teachers use the Link Academy agreed Medium Term planning document to plan a sequence of learning based on this ‘big question’, referring to the Connected Geography guidance, the Progression in Learning document and the word banks above. Children are then taught the knowledge and skills they need to answer the over-arching ‘big question’ in small manageable steps.

 Geography Lessons

Teachers begin each lesson with a ‘flash-back’ to previous or key learning, in order to address misconceptions, reinforce learning and to support long-term memory connections – helping children retain knowledge. Lessons include a range of teaching approaches, activities are tailored to challenge and support children appropriately and provide opportunities for children to work independently, with a partner or in a group. Each lesson builds on the next and has a clear, curriculum linked learning objectives which is shared with the children - making it clear what and how children are expected to learn! New concepts are carefully introduced and taught through meaningful contexts and examples, so children have a grounded understanding before being asked to apply this learning. Progression in field-work skills is ensured as our children use age- appropriate precision when recording, presenting and analysing data, including the use of ICT.

 Geography lessons are tailored to the needs of each child, with teachers using ‘assessment for learning’ strategies to swiftly pinpoint children’s next steps in learning to identify those who require more support and those who can be challenged to ‘dig deeper’ - maximising progress. Learning is adapted and personalised to ensure children with SEND or EAL are able to access the full curriculum and have an equal opportunity to take part in every aspect of the Geography curriculum. A topic ends with a ‘time to shine’ activity which concludes and celebrates children’s learning.

 Rosenshine’s 10 Principles of Instruction

At Littleham, we base all of our teaching on Rosenshein’s 10 Principles of Instruction and Geography is no exception to that. Throughout a unit of work, you would find examples of;

Short reviews of previous learning.

New material presented in small steps.

Regular opportunities for questioning.

Learning models provided.

Regular guided student practice.

Regular checks for understanding.

A high success rate for understanding.

Scaffolding task.

Independent practice.

Weekly, monthly and termly reviews.

Oracy and questioning 

Impact

The most effective way to find out what pupils understand about their Geography will be to talk to them. Pupils really understand a geographical concept, idea or skill if they can:

Describe it in their own words.

Represent it in a variety of ways (e.g. using images, timelines)

Explain it to someone else.

See geographical connections between it and other facts or ideas.

Recognise it in new situations and contexts.

Make use of it in various ways, including in new situations.

Through conversations with pupils we are also able to understand how they learn, if they are able to connect prior learning to the learning they are undertaking as well as investigating whether they understand why they are learning the key concepts and whether they know how they can be used in their future learning.

Assessment for Impact

Teachers are responsible for the regular assessment of their pupils against key knowledge and skills to judge the impact of teaching and learning in geography against National Curriculum expectations. Each enquiry that forms our programme of learning and teaching in history sets clear objectives and outcomes for the pupil in terms of knowledge and understanding and skills acquisition. Teachers use a range of ways to assess whether a child has achieved the intended outcomes, ensuring that evidence for judgements is drawn from a wide range of sources, such as class discussions, careful questioning, practical activities, role-play and writing in different genres. The outcomes of each enquiry serve to inform the teacher’s developing picture of the knowledge and understanding of each child and to plan future learning accordingly. Teachers do not make summative judgements about children’s individual pieces of pupil work but rather use such outcomes to build a picture of what the child knows, understands and can do.

At the end of each term, teachers make a summative judgement about the achievement of each child against the subject learning goals for history in that year. At this point teachers decide upon a ‘best fit’ judgement as to whether the child has achieved and embedded the expected learning goals, exceeded expectations or is still working towards the goals. These decisions are based on the professional knowledge and judgement that teachers possess about the progress of each child, developed over the previous three terms, which allows an informed and holistic judgement of attainment to be made. Achievement against the learning goals for history at the end of the year is used as the basis of reporting progress to parents.

The subject leader monitors standards through work scrutiny ‘book looks’, pupil conferencing, learning walks and discussions with staff, and through their own continued professional development keeps developing and refining our history curriculum in light of evidence-based research.