Geography

Intent statement:

The national curriculum states, “A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should 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."

At Chalk Ridge, we want our children to be confident within their learning and inquisitive about the world around them. We will help to answer their questions by learning about different places around the world. This will be done through interpreting a range of sources including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). They will then communicate their geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills. We will see their progression throughout their time at Chalk Ridge because they will know more, remember more and are able to do more.

 

Implementation Statement:

In the Foundation Stage, children are taught geography through the key area of learning set out within the EYFS Statutory Framework. Through a broad range of teacher-led, child-initiated and continuous learning opportunities, children will be taught to:

  • Find out about, identify and observe the different features of living things, objects and worldly events;
  • Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change;
  • Ask questions about why things happen and why things work;
  • Develop their communication and co-operation skills;
  • Talk about their findings, sometimes recording them;
  • Identify and find out about features of the place they live and in the natural world around them.
     

In KS1 and KS2, children continue to build on their geography knowledge with more formal weekly geography lessons. Geography units can last between 6 and 12 weeks and are taught in blocks which alternate with history.

 

The substantive knowledge is divided into the following units:

Impact statement:  

Pupils enjoy, and are successful in, learning across the seven geographical substantive knowledge blocks: place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change. This is interwind with applying their disciplinary knowledge through the enquiry process.

 

We measure impact through:

  • retrieval tasks at the beginning of each lesson to assess their prior understanding;
  • half-termly meetings with children to discuss geography to help make improvements and celebrate their successes;
  • ensuring the planning is followed, with necessary tweaks to support learners in the classroom. Following the planning ensures a progression of skills.

 

Observation of teaching and learning will show:

  • teachers have a good level of subject knowledge;
  • teachers use a range of questioning to explore children’s understanding;
  • verbal feedback is constructive and allows children to develop their disciplinary knowledge;
  • children are able to use and explain the meaning of subject specific vocabulary;
  • children’s misconceptions are addressed through oral feedback;
  • pupils feel able to make a positive contribution to a diverse and rapidly changing world;
  • pupils are encouraged to develop open minds to new and different concepts and to form their own opinions based on evidence and argument;
  • marking and feedback encourages ‘deeper’ thinking for greater depth understanding;
  • formative assessment through questioning during lessons and investigations;
  • confident and curious children who can eagerly talk about their geography lessons and discoveries they have made;
  • children are able to use and explain the importance of geographical skills.