Intent

At Arboretum Primary School, our intent is that a Geography curriculum should inspire a lifelong curiosity and awe about our world and our role in sustaining it. We seek to create a life-long love of the subject by embedding knowledge and skills that will remain with the children beyond their years at Arboretum.

We believe that our curriculum promotes practical and engaging, quality Geography aiming to provide our children with the foundations and knowledge for understanding the world so that they become confident global citizens. It promotes geographical enquiry and engagement with the local environment to ensure that children learn through varied and first-hand experiences of the world around them. Our curriculum offers fieldwork and projects so that children develop an understanding of the impact of human development on the natural and physical world around them. It intends to capture children’s natural curiosity about the world and what they observe, to promote respect for the environment and cultures different to their own.

Our curriculum is designed to provide our children with the subject specific language they need to describe, question and discuss the world, as well as their place in it. Our pupils are encouraged to recognise that they have a voice and to use it confidently to debate topics that they feel passionate about, for example, deforestation or renewable energy. We aim to produce well- rounded individuals by providing our children with opportunities to expand their cultural capital and experiences of the world.

Implementation

Our Geography curriculum is planned in line with the knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum and the individual needs of our children.  We have created a Geography knowledge progression map, which sets out the objectives taught in each year group. Geography is taught as part of our two-year cycle for each age phase.

Teachers use questioning, and provide opportunities for discussion and investigation to support the development of vocabulary, which is explicitly taught and modelled by teachers in every lesson. Key geographical knowledge and language (such as, the name and location of continents, countries, capital cities and oceans) is revisited frequently, to make learning memorable, relevant and easy to retrieve.

We support learning with trips to inspire our children and widen their cultural experiences. For instance, our KS2 rainforest learning involved a visit from ‘Rainforest Dave’ which was a valuable stimulus in teaching about the rainforest and KS1 have the opportunity to visit ‘Beaumanor Hall’ where the woodland, pond, stream and meadow areas provided the children with the opportunity for fieldwork.

Our EYFS classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. 'Understanding the World' , this involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Teachers are also encouraged to use a range of resources such as videos, photographs and newspaper articles during lessons to help create immersive learning experiences. Teachers create a positive attitude to Geography learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards.

Geographical enquiries have a clear structure; over KS1 and KS2, children develop increasingly complex skills in enquiry, map work and direction, as well as developing their knowledge and understanding of places and geographical processes.

Impact

By the end of KS2 our children will know more, understand more and remember more about Geography and the world. They will be motivated and inspired to continue their learning as they progress to KS3. The children will develop a range of life skills, which they can use and develop beyond school life. The children will also display confidence and enjoyment in Geography.

Children will use and apply skills across the curriculum, making meaningful connections in purposeful contexts. Our engagement with the local environment ensures that children learn through varied and first-hand experiences of the world around them. Through various fieldwork activities, enquiry questions and themed units of work children will have the understanding that geography impacts upon our lives daily.

Geography at Arboretum Primary School measure the impact of our Geography curriculum through monitoring work, listening to the children’s attitudes about Geography through pupil voice, by taking learning walks/ book looks and data analysis.