For children to understand how their lives are connected to others and the impact different settlements have had in the UK and the world in order for them to make responsible choices in the future.

Intent

At Our Lady Catholic Primary School, we believe Geography can inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We feel it is important to nurture their inquisitive thinking and questioning skills to help them interpret what they see in both their immediate surroundings and in places and environments in the wider world. 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. Geography skills are transferable to other curriculum areas and can promote their cultural, moral and social development. Our curriculum aims to provoke questions and to deepen their understanding and to instil a sense of environmental responsibility at a local and global level.

Implementation

Teachers use a variety of teaching and learning styles in their history lessons to develop pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding in geography.

We aim to achieve this by ensuring :

• All pupils receive one Geography lesson a week which will vary in length but will be about 45 minutes to an hour a week, depending on which topic is being taught that half-term.

• Geography is taught for three half-terms in a year.
• We follow the Kapow pathways as a basis for the topics and then use the NC statements to develop the History teaching to ensure a broad and balanced coverage of the knowledge and skills.

Key Stage 1 -Will be taught locational knowledge (naming and locating the seven continents of the world), place knowledge (understanding similarities and differences between an area in the UK), human and physical geography (using basic geographical vocabulary) and geographical skills and fieldwork (using simple compass directions and directional language).

Key Stage 2 – Will be taught locational knowledge (naming and locating counties and cities of the UK), place knowledge (understanding similarities and differences between an area of the UK and a region in North or South America), human and physical geography (climate zones and the water cycle) and geographical skills and fieldwork (using the 8 points of a compass, four and six figure grid references).

During the Early Years Foundation Stage pupils will begin to:

• Know there are different countries in the world.
• Draw information from a simple map.
• Understand that some places are special.
• Recognise similarities and differences between this country and others.
• Recognise some different environments.

Impact

At Our Lady Catholic Primary School, we believe Geography can inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We feel it is important to nurture their inquisitive thinking and questioning skills to help them interpret what they see in both their immediate surroundings and in places and environments in the wider world. 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. Geography skills are transferable to other curriculum areas and can promote their cultural, moral and social development. Our curriculum aims to provoke questions and to deepen their understanding and to instil a sense of environmental responsibility at a local and global level.

We track measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Track progress throughout the year using the evaluation questions from the topic knowledge organisers and ongoing assessment.
• Tracking of knowledge in learning with post topic assessment questions.
• Discussions with the children about their learning.

Inclusion

Our inclusive and adaptive approach allows all children to learn regardless of race, gender, faith, culture, or disability. We recognise that there are children of differing abilities in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children. We achieve this through a range of strategies which are differentiated by expected outcome and support from peers or adults. Teachers will use a variety of teaching styles and strategies to meet the needs of all children in their Geography learning.