Geography
Geography
Vision
Excellence achieved through care, creativity and challenge.
Intent
Our Geography curriculum inspires curiosity about people, cultures, communities and the relationships between humans and their environments. Pupils explore different places worldwide, appreciating similarities and differences in how people live. By developing cultural capital, pupils gain a strong understanding of the wider world and learn to communicate confidently about their place within it.
Implementation
Some pupils do not have opportunity to explore beyond our immediate locality. We aim for every pupil to understand where King’s Hedges fits within Cambridge, the East of England and the UK. By studying people, places and cultures locally and globally, pupils make meaningful comparisons and connections.
Our four purple threads are taken from the National Curriculum: Geographical Skills and Fieldwork, Locational Knowledge, Human and Physical Processes and Place Knowledge. Pupils use retrieval practice to reinforce prior learning and embed knowledge into long-term memory. Pupils are encouraged to make connections to places learnt about in previous years through Geography themes which are taught termly. The themes deepen pupils’ understanding of places and show how physical and human processes are interdependent, providing a geographical context for understanding the actions of physical and human processes and how these are interdependent. Where appropriate, geographical concepts are integrated into other subjects, supporting links with history and maths through data representation and spatial reasoning. Geography also feeds into reading and writing, enabling pupils to research, read for meaning and write explanations and reports.
Practical resources such as globes, atlases and maps help pupils develop perspective, distance, scale and direction. Key geographical vocabulary, introduced in the Early Years, is built upon progressively and consolidated through knowledge organisers. A strong sense of the world in promoted through displays, classroom provision and purposeful environments. Fieldwork enriches learning, with opportunities both on the school site and in the local area. Each theme begins with an engaging Big Bang to spark curiosity.
To ensure all children have access to high-quality education, staff are supported in their delivery through staff meetings to support curriculum knowledge and teaching strategies, specifically, high quality modelling of disciplinary knowledge. Additionally, there is a wealth of resources available for staff to access to enhance their teaching, including Digimaps, Geog your Memory, and comprehensive plans for teaching.
Impact
Pupils become increasingly confident in Geography, leaving KHEF with the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to communicate their understanding. Pupils are more tolerant and have an interest and appreciation of other cultures, people and places. Teachers use formative assessment through the use of questioning to inform their decisions are to whether pupils are working below, at or exceeding age-related expectations. The use of Knowledge Organisers, highlighted to demonstrate pupils’ learning are displayed in their blue folders to show progression and acquisition of skills. Throughout the Geography themes, the ‘I can be..’ project is interleaved to allow children to see themselves in geographical careers and talk about the substantive and disciplinary skills of the subject.
Enhancements
Through primary and secondary fieldwork opportunities, Big Bangs and educational visits, pupils have first-hand experience of working geographically: using compasses, maps, globes, atlases and measuring equipment to accurately record and interpret their findings. Opportunities to further extend knowledge of this subject are used in assemblies and annual whole school projects.
Geography Progression
Knowledge Organisers are available here: www.kingshedgesprimary.org.uk/learning/knowledge-organisers
