Geography

Geography

"You can travel the seas, poles and deserts and see nothing. To really understand the world, you need to get under the skin of the people and places. In other words, learn about Geography. I can't imagine a subject more relevant in schools." Michael Palin

Geography helps our pupils to learn about the world around them and the world beyond their experience. It helps them to develop a greater understanding of the world, as well as their place in it.  Children build on different geographical skills each year.  They develop their knowledge of locations and places in a range of contexts from local to global geography.  Children learn about physical geography such as volcanoes and earthquakes and human geography such as trade between the UK, Europe and the Rest of the World.  Children will learn a range of skills and field work using maps, globes atlases amongst other resources. Geography can link to different historical units of learning such as links to the Pre-Roman and Roman era.

The KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum (2014) in England sets the standards of learning for 5 to 11-year-olds. The curriculum provides a purpose, aims of study, attainment targets and subject content for each subject.  
Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Geography, as part of our broad and balanced curriculum, ensuring our provision is inclusive to every child. 
INTENT:
At Newton Ferrers we strive for our children to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our Geography curriculum is organised into a progression of skills and knowledge. 
The aims of teaching Geography in our school are:

•    To inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about the world.
•    To enable children to know about the location of the world’s continents, countries, cities, seas and oceans.
•    To develop in children the skills of interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
•    To help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes its location and can change over time.
•    To provide opportunities to study mathematics across the curriculum through geography lessons.

IMPLEMENTATION: 
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. When covering each of these curriculum areas, the content has been carefully organised to ensure skills are built upon each year. 

Geography is taught for one half term per term. Teachers plan ensuring meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for the children. 

All learning will start with revisiting prior knowledge and ensuring key information sticks within a child’s long-term memory.

The key strands of Geography which are built upon from Nursery to Year 6 are Locational Knowledge, Place knowledge, Human and Physical Geography, Geographical skills and fieldwork.   

The learning will include:
•    Providing opportunities for fieldwork both on the school site and in the local area.
•    Encouraging the children to contribute to the life of the school and the community, and use these ‘real’ contexts to develop their skills and knowledge in Geography.
•    Access to a range of Geographical concepts within context that can be understood at various levels. 
•    Understanding concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes; the interrelationships between places, environments and processes.
•    The use of technology to bring the world to life (e.g. Google Earth)
•    Children will have the opportunity to clearly explain and express their own thoughts and opinions upon Geographical matters.
•    Establishing cross-curricular links:

 History - to know where in the world events took place

Maths - directions, coordinates and statistics
Art - knowing where an artist comes from or where specific art was created or is displayed
Food Technology – understanding where food comes from
Modern Foreign Languages – Understanding where the language is spoken

IMPACT: 
Pupil voice will be used to enable subject leaders to assess if the aims of the Geography curriculum have been achieved by understanding if the children know and remember their learning. Through implementing thinking skills, children are becoming more in tune with how they learn and are happily engaged in the carefully planned activities accessible to them. Children should not only be taught a skill but should also have it deeply embedded in their long-term memory. Following the years teachings, children should be able to apply and expand on their Geography knowledge. Making them ready to further build on these skills in the following year. In our Medium Term Planning and the end of each units we identify children who we feel are not yet secure in key areas and need additional support and those that are working at greater depth. We also identify the next steps for these children in the proceeding units. 

Pupil Voice in Geography....

• "The world is huge and Geography helps you to feel like you are finding out about lots of places and exploring them."

• " Geography helps you learn lots of facts about the world - continents and countries and flags and the people there."

• " It helps you become a Geographer exploring the world and working out where places are and what they are like."

• " I like it when we go out of school to explore places like Newton Ferrers and Dartmoor then you see real Geography."