Intent

In Geography, we aim for all of our children to see themselves as geographers and to ‘think like a geographer’. We endeavour to inspire a sense of curiosity in our children and develop their enthusiasm for geography, recognising that the skills and knowledge they learn through geography can be used to have a positive impact on God’s world around them.
 

To be able to be a geographer, children will need to build up the skills, knowledge and understanding of the world around them and their place in it, which begins in the Early Years. They will need to understand and use the language of geography and apply these geography skills and knowledge across the curriculum, making connections both within geography and across other subjects too.
 

To be a geographer, children will show a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Through our carefully designed curriculum, they will develop 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 they progress through the school, their growing knowledge about the world will 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 will provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Implementation

The aims of the National Curriculum (2014) for geography are:

To ensure that all pupils: 

• 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 
• Are 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

How we plan for progression in geography at St Gregory’s:

The St Gregory’s Geography Curriculum has been developed around the enquiry approach. Each unit has been carefully selected and sequenced in order to engage pupils in purposeful learning by building on prior knowledge and helping connect knowledge, understanding and skills year-on-year both within geography and across other subjects too.
 

Geography is taught every other term, e.g. in Term 2, Term 4 and Term 6 for each year group from Year 1 to Year 6. Each unit is driven by an overarching enquiry question, e.g. in Year 1, children answer the question, “What is it like where we live?” Each lesson in the unit is driven by a sub-question that will contribute to the answer to the overarching enquiry question.  
 

We recognise that foundations for children becoming geographers are laid in the Early Years Foundation Stage through all seven strands of the Early Years Framework, especially Understanding the World, and to be ready for the next stage in their education, the starting point that we strive for every child to have upon entry to Y1 and working towards the aims of the National Curriculum is:

Understanding the World

• Exposure to experiences that support children’s understanding of the world around them.
• Engage with text that foster understanding of our ecologically diverse world

Mathematics

• To develop spatial reasoning skills

Once children enter Y1, they work progressively towards the aims of the National Curriculum.  To ensure progression, the curriculum coverage was carefully considered, as well as identifying substantive knowledge, disciplinary knowledge and ‘Golden Threads’ for each unit. 
 

Golden Threads (Substantive Concepts)

Geography curriculum coverage
We adopt an enquiry led approach to Geography which enables our pupils to learn as young geographers and to understand the kind of questions that geographers ask of the world. Through enquiry, our pupils not only build their substantive knowledge, but become increasingly adept at disciplinary thinking and making connections to prior learning and the Golden Threads. Coverage is based on the National Curriculum 2014 PoS with objectives allocated across phases and year groups, to ensure a progression of knowledge, skills and understanding.  For example:

The purpose of this document is to ensure that all aspects of the NC PoS is covered at least once as appropriate to their age and within the bounds of our clearly defined progression of skills. Agreement of what is taught when and by whom has been part of regular review to ensure that it is fit for purpose.  Monitoring as part of observations, book looks and planning reviews, ensures that our geography curriculum remains on track. A link to this document can be found at the bottom of this page.

Geography Progression of skills

The disciplinary knowledge progression document identifies the skills of a geographer. The children will be developing and applying these skills throughout their units of geography. 

Progression of Skills (Disciplinary Knowledge)

A link to this document can be found at the bottom of this page.

Geography Progression of Vocabulary
Vocabulary, at an age appropriate level, is paramount to the children’s understanding and ability to articulate their intent and enable questioning. It is, therefore, a key consideration in geography planning.  Key subject vocabulary is introduced at the appropriate time, building on prior knowledge.

Planning
Planning for geography uses a standard format consistent across all foundation subjects. When planning for geography teachers utilise the whole school progression document which encompasses the NC PoS agreed objectives and the Skills Progression document to craft engaging lessons. To support the teaching and learning of geography, teachers have access to Digimaps a global resource that provides interactive mapping tools that can be used not only by the teacher for planning and delivering the curriculum but also enables the children to access as part of their personal learning.

These are the documents that are used to plan lessons in geography.

See Geography Vision for more information