Geography

Intent

Our aim at Pembury Primary school is to ensure our knowledge rich curriculum develops children’s curiosity, interest and appreciation for the world we live in. Throughout the school, the Geography curriculum has been carefully designed, planned and sequenced alongside our scheme, Curriculum Maestro, to ensure our projects are engaging and cover the breadth of the curriculum.

“Geography should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress through the primary phase, 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. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.”

Purposes of Study, National Curriculum for England 2014.

Implementation

At Pembury, each Geography project begins with an exciting memorable experience such as an immersive project afternoon, expert visitors and educational visits. The staff are passionate about delivering a strong Geography curriculum and have good subject knowledge.  Our medium-term plans and knowledge organisers lay out the key skills, specific knowledge and vocabulary we will be teaching the children over each project. Teachers provide the parents and children with a copy of each knowledge organiser. This helps to ensure children have a solid understanding of the content their project covers and empower them to take ownership in their learning. Our Geography curriculum offers high quality and well-planned lessons; which ensure that children are given the opportunity to have a good knowledge of places, people, resources, natural and human environments, and key physical and human features and processes. Our Geography curriculum is challenging and engaging and builds upon previous knowledge and understanding. In order to ensure our intent is consistently met, we:

• Have high expectations of the teaching and subject knowledge
• Have high expectations of children and intended learning
• Offer verbal or written feedback to the children
• Complete formative and summative assessments
• Interview the children (pupil voice) about their learning
• Moderate project books
• Promote professional dialogue between teachers to assess the quality of teaching and learning and sharing of good practice

Impact

A Pembury geographer will:

• Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
• Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
• Be competent in the geographical skills needed to: collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
• Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
• Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.