Geography

To inspire pupils to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people.  

To develop pupils’ geographical skills and communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.   

For pupils to understand, compare and contrast different places, people and localities throughout the world. 

For our pupils to apply Geographical skills in everyday life. 

In EYFS, we implement Geography through exploring the world around us, as well as learning about people in the world.  We remember our learning and vocabulary through floor books.  

Our Geography curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.  

The National Curriculum states that ‘as pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.’  

To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our Geography curriculum is designed to competently cover the four main strands: Locational Knowledge; Place knowledge; Human and Physical Geography; Geographical Skills and Fieldwork.  

When covering each of these strands, the content is carefully sequenced to build on knowledge and skills and covered explicitly by each year group. 

Across Key Stages 1 and 2, learning will begin by revisiting children’s prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. 

Teachers have extensive subject knowledge on the aspect of Geography being taught and will model the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the unit to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. 

Children will be given a variety of learning experiences both in the classroom, and with opportunities to learn outdoors, undertaking fieldwork and using high quality resources and geographical equipment to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding.  

The overall topic may be taught in a cross-curricular way, when appropriate, to enable pupils to make rich, meaningful links within their learning and to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.  

Topic books and floor books are high quality and reflect what is being taught including vocabulary, relevant diagrams and photos. These evidence the highest expectations of learning.  

Topic displays cover the current Geography objectives currently being taught in every classroom, to provide constant scaffolding for children.  

Subject specific vocabulary is displayed on the learning wall along with key facts and questions, and model exemplars of the work being taught.  

Geography assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular themes to inform teachers with their planning lesson activities and differentiation.  

Regular curriculum quizzes are used to review learning and check that children know more and remember more, supporting them to retain new facts and vocabulary in their long-term memory. 

Learning is reviewed also on a termly basis, so that teachers can check and assess learning retained.  

Further assessment is completed at the end of each topic where Geography objectives have been covered and is used to inform leaders of school improvements or skills that need to be further enhanced. 

Geography assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular themes, to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation.  

As we introduce the new format of assessing the wider curriculum, further assessment will be completed at the end of each topic where Geography objectives have been covered. Children will be graded as emerging, expected or exceeding within objectives learnt through their Geography unit, and information from assessments will be used to inform leaders of school improvements or skills that need to be further enhanced.  

Pupil voice is used at Thirsk Community Primary School to enable leaders to assess the impact of the Geography curriculum: whether pupils enjoy and are motivated by the subject, and whether they are confident and able to talk about what they have learnt in Geography, including the recollection of Geographical knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they have been taught over time, with this information being used to support leaders to further develop the curriculum.  

Topic book monitoring takes place once a term across all year groups and shows that Geography is taught at an age appropriate standard across each year group with appropriate levels of differentiations and opportunities planned in for pupils working at greater depth. Work is of good quality and demonstrates pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.