At Kingsbury Primary School, we want our children to have a curiosity and fascination of the world around them through understanding communities, the environment and sustainability.

Intent

The study of geography involves our pupils exploring the relationship and interactions between people and the environments in which they live and upon which they and all life on Earth depends.  The many opportunities and challenges that will arise during their lifetime will be very much about geography at personal, national and global scales. What we intend pupils to learn in geography reflects this throughout the curriculum. We have established a school curriculum plan for geography (see School Curriculum Plan for Geography Years 1 – 6) as an entitlement for all pupils that is:

• Aspirational in terms of instilling in our pupils a desire to achieve the highest levels of success through providing them with the opportunities to excel in terms of their acquisition of long-lasting knowledge and understanding and mastery of core geographical skills. (See Schemes of Work for a Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2 enquiries)
• Logical, relevant, broad and balanced in terms of the areas of subject content we have selected which reflect the guidance of and are commensurate with the demands of the National Curriculum. For example, we have ensured that content includes an even proportion of physical and human investigations such as the effect of rivers on the landscape and the impact of the rise of megacities in the world. Due consideration has been given also to making certain that our geography curriculum maintains relevancy and topicality through including enquiries that engage pupils in studying issues such as climate change, flooding and trade
• Sequenced to ensure that pupils can build on previous knowledge and understanding as they tackle more complex and demanding enquiries.
• Progressively more challenging from Years 1 through to 6, both in terms of the complexity of the subject knowledge we want our pupils to acquire and the critical thinking skills we support them to utilise to ensure they understand the significance of that knowledge. (Progression in Geography sheet and Coverage and Progression of Geographical Skills EYFS – Upper Key Stage 2 sheets)
• Built upon and has continuity with the provision for geography established in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in particular that which addresses the knowledge and skills expectations of the People, Culture and Communities Early Learning Goal
• Inclusive in terms of delivering the same curriculum to all of our pupils irrespective of specific learning needs or disabilities and differentiating where necessary through, for example, in class support, providing different learning environments, alternative learning activities and assessment outcomes.

All about Geography at KPS

Implementation

We adopt an enquiry focused approach to learning and teaching in geography which develops our pupils as young geographers (see working as a Geographer sheet). Through enquiry our pupils not only build subject knowledge and understanding but become increasingly adept at critical thinking, specialised vocabulary and their grasp of subject concepts. We structure learning in geography through big question led enquiries about relevant geographical topics, places and themes. Our curriculum is therefore ‘knowledge rich’ rather than content heavy as we recognise that if we attempt to teach geographical topics, places, themes and issues in their entirety we restrict opportunities for pupils to master and apply critical thinking skills and achieve more challenging subject outcomes. Lessons are structured through the use of ancillary questions, to enable pupils to build their knowledge and understanding in incremental steps of increasing complexity until they reach the point where they are able to answer the question posed at the beginning of the investigation.

Impact

Each enquiry which forms our programme of learning and teaching in geography sets clear objectives and outcomes for the pupils in terms of knowledge and understanding and skills acquisition. The schemes of work also suggest a range of ways in which the teacher can assess whether a pupil has achieved these outcomes. We ensure that when assessing our pupils’ evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources to inform the process including interaction with pupils during discussions and related questioning, day to day observations, practical activities such as model making and role play drama, the gathering, presentation and communication of fieldwork data and writing in different genres. (See assessment Guidance and Geography Learning Goals Years 1– 6)

Home Learning links

Learn about the world - Play World Geography Games
 

National Geographic Kids