Geography
Wychwood Primary School – Geography Vision Statement
Intent
Our Geography curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and to promote children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. Children investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. Because of our rural location, we also endeavour to develop children’s knowledge of the wider world and the diversity beyond the Wychwoods. Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject, one where curiosity and questioning is key. We aim to inspire our children to ask why? To question the past, current, and future and to begin to problem solve. By doing all the above we hope to provide our children with key skills so they can grow up to be caring, responsible adults who can positively influence the future of our planet.
Implementation
Our Geography curriculum is carefully sequenced for both coverage and progression. The subject lead has identified key knowledge and skills for each unit of work and made links to prior learning. We learn in a cohesive sequence and ‘stick’ our learning together each year, building on previous knowledge, skills and experiences. For each unit of work, end of unit objectives for the four areas of the Geography curriculum have been mapped out – these are locational knowledge, place knowledge, environmental, physical and human geography and geographical skills and fieldwork. We know that our Geography curriculum needs to be a fun, exciting, engaging, creative and stimulating experience for both our children and teachers alike. Our lessons are carefully planned to inspire our pupils to become thoughtful and passionate Geographers.
EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of Geography through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World’. Children learn about features of their own environment such as home, school and our local community. Children then compare our village to bigger cities such as London and we take the children on a trip to the story museum in Oxford where they get to observe the differences between a rural and urban area. As part of one of the units we look at, we have a weekly ‘round the world’ story where children read a story from a different country and as part of this, they locate on the map and talk about similarities and differences and begin to form opinions about whether they would like to visit or not. This teaching allows for children to comment, ask questions and make observations of the world around them.
Impact
Children will have developed the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it. Children’s knowledge and skills will develop progressively as they move through the school, not only to enable them to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to inspire them to develop a curiosity and a deeper understanding about the world they live in as well, providing them with skills to ‘think like a Geographer’ as well as preparing them to become competent geographers in secondary education. Outcomes in books, evidence a balanced and extensive geography curriculum and demonstrate our children’s grasp and understanding of the key knowledge relating to each of the identified national curriculum strands, as appropriate to key stage; locational knowledge, place knowledge and human and physical geography.
Beyond books, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
· Conversations with our children about their learning.
· Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
· Floor Books in EYFS and Year 1.
· Learning walks and professional dialogue with teachers.
· ‘Book looks’ and teacher discussions about class learning.
