Geography
Subject Lead: Mr Scrimshaw
A warm welcome to our Geography page. At St Joseph's, our curriculum has been designed to excite and inspire all of our children, ensuring it is purposeful, progressive and meaningful for every child.
Intent
Our intention is that every child will be an interested and inquisitive learner of Geography. We follow the National Curriculum programmes of study for each year group, aiming to create the very best geographers, well equipped to continue their studies in Geography as they move throughout their education. We challenge pupils to think, act and speak like those working in the field would, by developing a consistent approach across all year groups. Substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge are explicitly taught. By substantive knowledge we mean the people, events and developments from the past that children will learn about. By disciplinary knowledge, we mean all the various processes that children need to develop if they are to get better at a subject. This can both refer to a process of doing something (e.g. interpreting a source) but also a thought process in order to understand big concepts such as change, continuity and consequence.
High quality Geography teaching in primary school is our ultimate goal. This forms part of a larger progressive curriculum from EYFS to Year 6 and into KS3 and KS4. The Geography curriculum will inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. It will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. This includes:
• Locational knowledge of globally significant places;
• Have opportunities to experience physical geography and human geography throughout the learning journey;
• Have opportunities to experience geography outside the classroom, where pupils will have the geographical skills. to be competent in:
- fieldwork to observe, measure record and present the human and physical features in the local area;
- using a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS);
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical skills and writing at length
Implementation
The key threshold concepts across the Geography curriculum are taught throughout the units to develop geographically knowledge and skills. This forms part of a larger progressive curriculum from EYFS to Year 6 and into KS3 and KS4. The curriculum is designed for progression and built around the threshold concepts (with content structured as a narrative over time) to ensure essential knowledge is learned, applied and accessible for all pupils. The curriculum narrative is led by the four threshold concepts:
• Location and place knowledge;
• Geographical skills and communication;
• Physical processes and landscapes;
• Human interaction with the environment.
Research about cognitive science is used to help pupils learn and remember more. Understanding is checked through spaced retrieval exercises. Throughout units of work teachers will make links and encourage pupils to make links between past learning and geographical knowledge or skills being taught.
Geographical knowledge will be built upon in a structured, sequential and progressive way. Geography will be taught starting from pupil’s immediate geography, then to our local geography, the geography of the UK, and finally geography of the wider world. Teachers will ensure that lessons are planned in sequences that provide pupils with the opportunities to review, remember, deepen and apply their understanding. Tasks and activities relate to pupil’s own experiences and are then furthered to the wider world in developmental steps.
Impact
Pupils develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes. They understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these bring about change over time. Pupils are 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. They interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). They communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length in a subject specific way.
Pupil dialogue and work in books shows a high standard of geography being taught. Pupils are able to talk and are able to demonstrate their learning with geographical language and vocabulary. They can make links and connections to what they have been taught previously. Geographical learning and enjoyment is visible. Pupils will have experienced a wide breadth of study and cultural capital, be able to think, reflect upon, write and debate about geography. They will have an in-depth, long-lasting knowledge of geographical concepts and be able to think like geographers, ready for KS3 and the wider world.
"The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together."
- US President, Barack Obama.