Geography
“Oh, the Places You’ll Go…..
You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day!
Your Mountain is waiting. So….get on your way!” - Dr Seuss
Geography at Ivy Bank enables pupils to have a curiosity about the world – all places and spaces have a history behind them, shaped by humans, earth and climate and pupils will develop a meaning and awareness to places and spaces, including spatial awareness of the globe and it's future.
Geography helps to develop problem solving skills and enables pupils to explore their own world. It seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there and how they develop and change over time. Pupils have opportunities to use and reflect on their prior knowledge and personal experiences and “be inspired in curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives” (National Curriculum).
INTENT
It is the intent of Ivy Bank for Geography to be taught in all year groups though one unit per term, with the exception of EYFS, who will develop Geographical awareness and experiences in each of their half term units. Throughout the school, we teach Geography to help pupils acquire and develop a better understanding about “…the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents.” – Barack Obama. It is our intention that pupils become more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
- Substantive knowledge- this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content
- Disciplinary knowledge– this considers how geographical knowledge originates and is revised. It is through disciplinary knowledge that children gradually become more expert by thinking like a geographer.
This ensures that pupils develop the knowledge, skills and understanding of the key geographical concepts of contextual knowledge, processes (both physical and human) and geographical skills ensuring that they achieve/exceed the aims of the National Curriculum for Geography – Key Stages 1 and 2 (DfE, 2013) during their time at Ivy Bank. The content of the whole school overview allows for a broad and deep understanding of the four areas of Geography and the units are intended to improve pupil’s geographical vocabulary, map skills and geographical facts and provide opportunities for first-hand experiences, interest and progress in this subject.
IMPLEMENTATION
All pupils at Ivy Bank School will be taught Geography. Geographical knowledge is taught explicitly in geography lessons so that children know more, remember more and can do more. The use of ‘bridging back’ quizzing and discussions is apparent in Geography lessons across the school. Substantive and disciplinary knowledge is organised the four areas of Geography:
- locational knowledge
- place knowledge
- human and physical processes
- geographical skills (map skills, fieldwork, similarities and differences, research, enquiry, cause and consequence)
This will ensure that pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding are built upon through successive years towards clearly identified year group learning outcomes.
In EYFS, ‘Development Matters’ will be used as a guide to help pupils to develop their knowledge and skills of Geography, primarily within ‘Understanding the World’ as well as many other areas of the EYFS curriculum. Using a wide range of sources including stories, photographs, video clips, first hand experiences (past, present and future), small world play, the outdoor environment and discussions, pupils in EYFS will learn about the world around them, exploring nature, living things, different countries, making simple maps, positional language, recognising and naming features, including the seasons and finding similarities and differences in all of these.
In KS1 and KS2, pupils will follow the National Curriculum. Within KS1, pupils will develop their knowledge beginning with their immediate locality of the school and moving onto learning about the UK, naming countries and places in the UK. Year 2 will develop this further by finding Geographical features of their home town of Macclesfield, learning about the continents and oceans of the world and exploring China. All pupils in KS1 will develop their Geographical vocabulary, relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observations and map skills.
Within KS2, pupils will extend their place and location knowledge beyond the local area, within the UK, Europe and Worldwide, including North and South America. Pupils will have opportunity to explore Cheshire, Counties in the UK and Countries of the World. Pupils will continue to learn new Geographical vocabulary, develop their knowledge of human and physical features (including Volcanoes, The Water Cycle, Rivers, Rainforests and Biomes) around the world and learn new fieldwork skills, including reading and using maps and presenting data and information.
Whole school themes such as climate, the environment and sustainability are evident in the overview and long term plan (below) and opportunities to develop whole school projects around these themes are explored.
IMPACT
Our Geography curriculum ensures that children leave Ivy Bank:
- Remembering key knowledge of places and locations as outlined in the National Curriculum and how to source geographical information as required.
- Able to use a variety of vital vocabulary with which to discuss their geographical knowledge and understanding.
- Knowing how their actions affect the local environment and the sustainability of the Earth’s resources.
Training, planning and teaching our Geography curriculum ensures:
- Teachers with secure subject knowledge, an appreciation of the structure of geography as a subject and an appreciation of the relationship between the two.
- Teachers able to assess pupils’ learning against NC objectives.
Assessment of pupils learning in Geography is an ongoing monitoring of their understanding, knowledge and skills in the class teacher during the Geography lesson. Work included in pupil’s books should be relevant to the lesson objective. Teacher assessment is then used to inform differentiation, support and challenge required by the children.
Below is a Whole School overview of our Geography Curriculum. For more information about our Geography Curriculum intent, implementation and impact, please read the Curriculum Statement below.
