Geography Intent

Vision

Our curriculum at Broughton Primary School encompasses the following aims to meet the needs of our children and the Geography curriculum is vehicle to bring these aims to life:

Aims of our curriculum

• ENGAGE – Pro-actively engage children in their education and help them to be responsible for their successes and achievements both academically and socially

Within our planning, teachers ensure there is a clear hook and outcome for each area of Geography studied. We also provide other opportunities to engage the children in their Geography learning in different contexts through our driver lessons. We believe children should be active in their learning and therefore ensure a range of teaching strategies to develop and embed conceptual understanding.

• EVALUATE – They will have the ability to evaluate the choices they can make and make conscious decisions based on these evaluations

Children are encouraged to analyse and compare locations, considering the human and physical features as well as how places can be interdependent and interconnected. Through their learning, children are given the ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the world by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry.

• EMPOWER – The children will feel empowered and unafraid of challenge or initial failure

Children learn to have a desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high quality research across a wide range of geographical topics. By learning in different environments e.g., outdoors, children are eager to ask questions, tackle new concepts and develop their geographical understanding without fear of failure.

• REPONSIBLE – The children will have a developed sense of shared responsibility for things outside their immediate person.

Children’s understanding of the wider world develops during their time as they consider locations which differ to their immediate surroundings. Through the knowledge they acquire, children feel empowered as global citizens who are responsible for the world that they live in. This links closely with our rights respecting curriculum driver which develops children who have the ability to express well-balanced opinions about current issues including society and the environment.

• ENJOYMENT – The children will love/ look forward to coming to school (the majority of the time!)

Through the use of our planning, we design an interactive and engaging series of lessons, which maximise opportunities for children to learn in real life contexts. We plan exciting school visits to provide children with experiences that develop their understanding of geographical contexts within our local environment and give broad opportunities that complement and build on those within the school setting.

Geography Curriculum Implementation

Year 1-6

Geography is taught throughout the year as half termly topics. Teachers plan from the National Curriculum objectives alongside the Hampshire Geographical Progression of Skills. Each class has a long-term plan which outlines the learning journeys to be covered referring to the units in the National Curriculum. This is a progressive cyclical learning approach where learning is revisited over the course of each Key Stage, deepening their understanding each time.

Each learning journey is central to the teaching and this is made evident to the children. This is explored through an enquiry question which are the basis of study throughout the half term. This incorporates all the skills they will be learning within the unit; therefore, children are able to understand how one lesson builds on another within the journey.

By presenting our learning in this way and allowing children the opportunity to deepen their understanding by focussing on Geography for an entire half term, children have opportunities to follow their own lines of enquiry, investigate and compare a range of countries, develop a better understanding of their place within their immediate locality as well as their role as a global citizen. The local area is utilised to achieve the desired outcomes with extensive opportunities for learning outside of the classroom, both in the school grounds and in the wider community.

We develop children with the following essential characteristics to help them become geographers:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of the world, both human and physical aspects, as well as their own sense of place, using key geographical vocabulary
• Be able to identify pattern from a range of sources and compare and contrast different places/areas, giving reasons for their observations using prior knowledge to make connections
• A developing sense of curiosity about the world and how and why people and places are different or have changed
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate events in the news linked to their learning by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry

Teachers use questioning to provide opportunities for discussion, investigation and support the development of vocabulary. Key geographical knowledge and language is revisited throughout the key stages to ensure children develop a well-rounded understanding. Tasks are varied to support, scaffold and deepen learning. Fieldwork in both the school grounds and wider community allows children to have first-hand experiences and enhances the teaching and learning of geography.

Children will learn to be active participants as investigators in geographical enquiry not just passive recipients of knowledge.

Geography Curriculum Impact

By the time children leave Broughton Primary School in year 6, children are equipped with:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of places (including the people that live there) and the world around them
• An understanding of how human and physical factors have changed and shaped locations. For example, how particular rivers have affected the civilisation that lives nearby
• The ability to think critically about Geography and communicate ideas confidently for a range of audiences through our well-planned outcomes
• A developing sense of curiosity and feeling inquisitive about the world they live in
• A love for Geography