Geography

Geography at Ivy Bank

“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 

 INTENT

Geography gives us knowledge about different places on Earth and how they relate to each other.  It is the science of the Earth’s surface, its atmosphere and its features and developing knowledge and skills in Geography informs us about the planet and the word we live…the diverse places, people, resources and natural and physical environments.  Teaching Geography at Ivy Bank enables pupils to have an awareness of a place and scale – 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. 

Geography promotes 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). 

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. 

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.   

“Without Geography, You’re Nowhere” – author unknown

 IMPLEMENTATION

The curriculum is led and overseen by the Geography lead. Our Geography lead regularly monitors, evaluates and reviews the work by children, celebrating the good practice. This allows the curriculum to be evolved and improved further. 

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. 

The whole school plan has been developed to ensure National Curriculum coverage and begins with the immediate world around them, building out into worldwide Geography.  Pupils will access the geography curriculum though half term unit topics.  Each unit uses knowledge organisers to determine the content and includes Geographical skills to be explored.  Knowledge organisers include a ‘spaced bridging back’ section where previous knowledge relevant to their current unit is identified.  They also include facts, vocabulary, maps, images and information relevant to their unit and an ‘end points’ section that pupils can use to understand what knowledge and skills will be learnt in their unit.  In addition, there is a section to support teachers’ planning and lesson content. Pupils with SEND will be supported in Geography lessons with knowledge organisers, peer tasks, metacognition approaches, differentiated tasks and support staff. 

 Pupils will have access to a wide range of resources to develop their Geographical skills, including maps, atlases, globes, photographs, videos, web sites (such as Google Earth and Digimap), first-hand experiences (past, present and future) and relevant education visits or visitors.  Opportunities are sought to encourage pupils to explore the outdoor world around them, using the outdoor environment and grounds of Ivy Bank School. Pupils will present their Geographical work in a Geography book (green) and class Geography displays will include maps, images and vocabulary to support the pupils learning and knowledge.  The whole school plan has been devised to give pupils regular opportunity to use ‘bridge back’ and ‘bridge forwards’ in their Geography lessons during each school year and across their whole school experiences.  Where possible, Geography links are explored with other subjects and Geography lessons have  opportunities for pupils to develop skills in other areas of the curriculum, including English, Maths, Science, History, Art and PHSE.    

Through Geography, there are many approaches and attitudes to learning which have links to British Values and SMSC – all of which we continue to promote and develop at Ivy Bank School. 

British Values – Understanding the human and physical characteristic of places, the connections between people and places, sustainability, cultural understanding and diversity.  

In EYFS, pupils will begin 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. 

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 Macclesfield, learning about the continents and oceans of the world and comparing Macclesfield with Kamuli, Uganda.  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 Settlements, Mountains, Volcanoes, The Water Cycle, Rivers, Rainforests and Biomes) around the world and learn fieldwork skills, including reading and using maps and presenting data and information.   Pupils will also begin to understand trade links and environmental impacts of our changing Earth, including renewable energy and sustainability.

Whole school themes such as climate, the environment and water are evident in the long-term plan and opportunities to develop whole school projects around these themes are explored. 

“Geography is a subject which holds the key to our future.” – Michael Palin 

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. 

Continued Professional Development, 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. 

Summative assessment is conducted by class teachers across each year group.  Pupil progress and subject coverage will be monitored by the Geography subject leader, using the quizzes, ‘pupil voice’ discussions and book monitoring to establish learning, understanding and the impact of the teaching. 

Below is a Whole School overview of our Geography Curriculum.