Geography
At Broad Square Primary School our school values are evident in all subjects, we champion diversity and aim to nurture responsible citizens and tomorrow’s leaders. We are passionate about building a rich and varied vocabulary, enriching children’s understanding through meaningful experiences and enabling them to share their ideas, in written form, through oracy, digitally and creatively. A mastery of reading, writing and maths are preconditions of success across the curriculum, as such these skills are interwoven throughout our Geography teaching and learning.
Intent
At Broad Square, our Geography curriculum aims to inspire in our pupils a lasting curiosity and fascination about the world and its people.
Our teaching equips pupils with knowledge about: diverse places and people; resources in the environment; human and physical processes; and formation and changing use of landscapes. In addition, we aim to develop children’s geographical skills such as: collecting and analysing data; using maps, globes and digital mapping to name and identify countries, continents and oceans; and communicating information in a variety of ways. Our children are the geographers of the future. The enjoyment of the subject will be delivered via experiences in the classroom and out of the classroom, such as fieldwork and educational visits.
The geography curriculum at Broad Square enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Children develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it. Geography is an investigative subject, which relies on concepts, knowledge and skills from other curriculum disciplines. The curriculum is designed to develop progressive and transferable knowledge and skills throughout their time at Broad Square.
Implementation
Our long term planning throughout the school ensures coverage of the National Geography curriculum. Our planning of a broad and balanced curriculum encompasses British values throughout and enables our budding geographers to develop the core strands of Geography: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, and geography skills and fieldwork. We are currently implementing the Opening Worlds Humanities Curriculum across KS2.
Key knowledge has been identified for each topic, along with key skills, enabling clear progression across each year and across the school. Questioning and learning reviews are planned carefully to ensure children revisit key knowledge and concepts at regular intervals. By the end of Year 6, children will have an in-depth knowledge of the UK and its place in the wider world. They are able to explain how its role has changed over time, understanding that current events, as well as the past, make a meaningful difference to land use, trade links and economic activity. Interlinked with this is children’s exploration of the wider world, locational knowledge of countries within Europe and beyond, knowledge of human, physical and topographical features, and how natural disasters impact lives.
The vast majority of geography topics are taught discretely, however teachers optimise meaningful links across subjects, when possible. Cross curricular outcomes in Geography are specifically planned for, with links between Geography and History, for example, identified and utilised so pupils see the inter-disciplinary applications of their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Impact
The impact of our Geography curriculum is measured through a range of strategies:
- Ongoing teacher assessments
- Lesson observations
- Monitoring of books
- Learning walks
- Pupil voice
Children show their growing knowledge, skills and understanding over the course of each unit, culminating in a summative assessment to show a snapshot of their understanding. Pupils are given the opportunity to reflect on what they have learnt, what they have enjoyed and the range of skills that they have developed. This enables children to showcase their learning, drawing on a range of skills and knowledge to communicate their ideas as well as showing clear progression across each year and across the school.
The ultimate impact and measure of our Geography curriculum is the readiness for children to learn Geography at KS3 and beyond. Outcomes in Geography books evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Geography, therefore encouraging them to delve deeper into the world they live in, and grow into interested, responsible citizens.