Geography
Intent
In Geography, the intent of our curriculum is to foster children’s understanding of the wider world they live in. This is linked closely to some of our Christian values of compassion for others, justice for all and responsibility for our local areas and the world, and letting our light shine. We want our children to think like geographers developing skills of locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, and geographical skills and fieldwork.
The aims of the Geography Curriculum follow that of the National Curriculum, ensuring children have secure understanding of not only core and topic specific knowledge but also key geographical skills. High expectations are set for all learners regardless of their background or attainment level.
Implementation
The Geography Curriculum is designed so that taught knowledge and skills are built upon each week, term and year, with strong links to our local community such as towns, cities, and rivers, in particular, the River Mersey. This helps our children to know more, remember more and do more. To aid children’s retention of knowledge and skills we use knowledge organisers, low stakes retrieval quizzes as well as ongoing formative assessment and feedback. Our children are proactive in each Geography lesson, identifying how their previous learning supports the understanding of new concepts and children have the opportunity to regularly compare and contrast human and physical geography. Concepts are further strengthened and developed through the use of relevant high quality texts, the teaching of subject specific vocabulary to help children explain their understanding. Furthermore, the children’s cultural capital is nurtured through building their understanding of significant conservations and activists, and how the geography they are learning links to current sustainable world goals. Children participate in enrichment activities to further enhance their geographical learning such as taking part in project work and field visits: visiting Sankey Valley Park focusing on landscapes; visits to the River Mersey and Spike Island when learning about rivers; and a visit to Crosby beach when learning about coastlines.
Impact
Children are an active part of assessing their own learning, through regular feedback in lessons and through post learning quizzes. At the end of each unit, teachers assess children’s progress against the objectives of the National Curriculum for core knowledge and geographical skills, using a rigorous assessment tool. These assessments build an accurate picture of each child’s overall geographical progress as they move from year group to year group, to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their learning. Children will apply their learning to solve real world problems such as the sustainable development goals, and build a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for their rest of their lives.
If you would like any further information about our curriculum, please contact the school office.