Geography

Intent

At Sidlesham Primary School, it is our intention that Geography will inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We offer opportunities for children to explore the world in order to develop an understanding of the human and physical world in which they live in and their place within it. We aim to promote the children’s interest and understanding about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

Geography will promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development helping them to have a greater understanding of their place in the world, and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment. We encourage the children to ask questions about the world and provide opportunities for them to develop geographical skills and knowledge to be able to answer them. We aim to give our learners strong geographical knowledge, good enquiry skills, the ability to use a range of maps, the skills to collect and analyse data and the ability to communicate information in a variety of ways.

We want the children to have a love of geographical learning, gaining knowledge and skills through high quality teaching both inside and outside the classroom. We aim to develop children’s Geographical vocabulary and love of reading real by immersing them in a variety of texts: articles about world events, deforestation, natural disasters and their impact. This is aimed at giving children a deeper understanding and awareness of the natural global phenomena and to widen their experience of the environment away from their homes. We introduce children to maps from KS1 to build a firm foundation and knowledge about the continents that make up the world, the biomes and diversity within them and the uniqueness and importance of each continent as well as the importance of biodiversity, population and food production as well as distribution.

Pupils have the chance in Year Six to attend a residential trip where they have various opportunities to develop geographical fieldwork skills. This supports the work done in and around the school’s grounds and local community. Learners will investigate a range of places, both in Britain and abroad.

Curriculum Aims

To develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant terrestrial and marine places, including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.

To understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

To be competent in the geographical skills needed to:

collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs.
communicate geographical information in various ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Implementation

In the Early Years, staff follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework which aims to guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community by allowing them to explore, observe and find out about people, places and the environment. Through child-initiated and adult-led activities, the children will have opportunities to freely explore the EYFS setting and outdoor area, the forest area in school, to visit other parts of the school and make visits to places in the immediate vicinity of the school. These early experiences will provide opportunities for language development as pupils name and describe what they see in discussion with peers and adults.

In Key stage 1 and 2, the National Curriculum Geography programmes of study are used as the basis for our learning and teaching whilst incorporating our knowledge of the children we teach. It is taught over a rolling three year cycle, where weekly lessons enable children to build knowledge and skills over time. Geography lessons are planned using a clear progression document. This outlines the core knowledge and key geographical skills that should be taught in each unit, within each year group. This ensures a clear progression of knowledge and skills from one year group to the next. Additionally, each unit of work will include a knowledge organiser containing key information linked to the progression of skills.

In Key Stage 1, the starting point of their Geography journey is the school environment. The children learn about the local area in which we live and we then travel further afield to compare their life in this locality to other regions of the United Kingdom: Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The children describe the places and the features they study using simple geographical vocabulary, identifying some similarities and differences in the environment. They identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles. Throughout the key stage, children will have a variety of fieldwork experiences, which involve the use of simple techniques to record field data to answer geographical questions. When investigating places and environments, the children use sources such as simple maps, atlases, globes, images and aerial photos.

In Key Stage 2, the children develop a framework of world locational knowledge, including places in the local area, The UK and wider world and some globally significant physical and human features. In Upper Key Stage 2 this includes globally significant physical and human features in the news. They will become more adept at comparing places and understanding some reasons for similarities and differences. Additionally, they will develop precise geographical vocabulary. Throughout this Key Stage children continue to have a wide range of fieldwork experiences, including structured enquiries that involve fieldwork techniques to record field data to answer geographical questions. Fieldwork techniques will be progressively more challenging as children move through Key Stage 2.

Impact

At Sidlesham, we measure the impact of our geography curriculum through pupil interviews and end of unit summative assessments matching statements taken directly from the progression document. At the end of each unit of work, we identify children who are working at or beyond the age-related expectation, as well as the children who need additional support in that topic. Additionally, children are given the opportunity to complete a summative task at the end of each unit to share their knowledge and understanding about a topic.

By the time children leave Sidlesham they will:

Demonstrate a fascination and show curiosity about their immediate environment and the wider world.
Have an extensive base of locational knowledge, place knowledge and a good understanding of human and physical geography.
Have a deepened knowledge about people and places across the world and will use this to understand differences and similarities between communities and environments.
Communicate thoughtful ideas with confidence and will be critical thinkers, with the ability to reflect and consider multiple viewpoints.
Have furthered their geographical skills and knowledge about the world through a variety of practical and meaningful experiences.

Sidlesham Primary School

Geography

Intent

Curriculum Aims

Implementation

Impact

Geography Overview

Geographical Progression

Vocabulary Progression

Geography Knowledge Organisers