Geography Vision

“Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?” Michael Palin

Children need a curriculum that is research-based and supports the pedagogy of how children learn. Our Geography curriculum aims to develop children’s geographical knowledge in a meaningful way. Not only will it develop their understanding of physical and human geography, we want them to develop the skills to work like a geographer. We want children to experience a diverse Geography curriculum that allows them to make meaningful links, ask questions, and develop a strong understanding of the world and their place within it. We aim for three core ideals in our curriculum: Curious Minds; Diversity and to create Life Long learners in our pupils:

Curious Minds:
Our pupils will learn about their local area and immediate environment before developing a broader understanding of the United Kingdom and the wider world. They will explore places, environments, and geographical processes with a curious mind, using maps, fieldwork, and a range of sources. Pupils will have opportunities to make their own links and develop key geographical skills such as observation, data collection, interpretation, comparison, and enquiry.

Diversity is our Superpower:
We learn about Geography through a diverse lens and understand how places, environments, and communities differ across the world. Pupils will explore how physical and human processes shape lives in different locations and how these have changed over time. They will develop an understanding of global diversity, sustainability, and how geographical factors impact people both in the past and today.

Lifelong Learners:
We want our children to be passionate, engaged, and curious when learning in Geography lessons. We aim to teach Geography in a way where key knowledge is valued, remembered, and assessed. Pupils will use geographical vocabulary confidently, interpret maps and data, and reflect on real-world issues, building secure geographical knowledge and skills throughout their time at St Monica’s.

Our Geography Curriculum

Children in Early Years will be given opportunities to make sense of their world, through exploring, observing and finding out about people, places and the environment.

Geography is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Years 1–6. Geography is currently taught across three blocks throughout the year, every other half-term and is taught using the CUSP curriculum. As well as delivering the subject content of geography, the curriculum also makes links with other subjects, helping our children to acquire and develop the skills and confidence to undertake geographical enquiry, problem-solving and decision-making in context.

Our Geography curriculum ensures that pupils will:

• Have a thorough understanding of their local area and its place in the world.
• Show understanding of other cultures and demonstrate respect for their global environment.
• Have great locational knowledge.
• Develop great geographical skills, including how to use, draw and interpret maps.
• Describe key aspects of human and physical geography.

CUSP Geography

CUSP fulfils and goes well beyond the expectations of the National Curriculum as we believe there is no ceiling to what pupils can learn.

A guiding principle of CUSP Geography is that each study draws upon prior learning. High volume and deliberate practice are essential for pupils to remember and retrieve substantive knowledge and use their disciplinary knowledge to explain and articulate what they know. This means pupils make conscious connections and think hard, using what they know.

CUSP Geography is built around the principles of cumulative knowledge, focusing on spaces, places, scale, human and physical processes with an emphasis on how content is connected and relational knowledge acquired. An example of this is the identification of continents, such as Europe, and its relationship to the location of the UK.

Geography Substantive Concepts

Children use these key concepts to make links across and between modules of learning.

Disciplinary Knowledge 

Children's learning of historical knowledge fits into these key disciplinary concepts. 

 

Aims

We enrich children’s learning in the following ways:

• 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 and how they bring spatial changes over time
• Are competent in the geographical skills 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
• Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills

Leadership and Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in geography is progressive throughout the whole school, St Monica’s have appointed a coordinator for each key stage. Planning for geography is a process in which all teachers are involved to ensure that the school gives full coverage of the National Curriculum programmes of study for Geography 2014. As part of their planning process, coordinators and teachers ensure that:

• Staff meeting time is allocated throughout the year to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and skills necessary to implement the curriculum.
• There is an investment in trips and outside experts to create a meaningful context for learning.
• High quality resources and texts are used to support the children’s learning and are regularly reviewed.
• Teachers ensure that the curriculum is ambitious but inclusive to all pupils and demonstrates that British Values are addressed.
• Meaningful cross-curricular links are developed to deepen children’s understanding.
• Projects to create links between school and home.

Measuring Impact

The geography curriculum at St Monica’s Catholic Primary School inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching equips 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 resources.  As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their 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.

Progress through the geography curriculum is measured through a mixture of formative and summative assessment, regular book moderation, celebration events and discussion and review with the children. Feedback is continually given to children which leads to better outcomes. Links will be established between school and home celebrating curious and engaged children. At the end of each topic the children will debate an issue and complete an end of topic quiz. This will enable us to determine if children have a secure understanding of geographical concepts taught as they move forward to their next stage of education. “As practitioners we should be aiming to move all our children into becoming teachers. If a child can confidently demonstrate the level of understanding necessary for them to be able to explain and teach a concept, idea or approach to another child, then in doing so they are demonstrating that their initial learning has been internalised and embedded.”        (The School Improvement Company, 2019)

Pupils develop a secure understanding of each key block of knowledge and concepts, meaning that they can progress successfully to the next stage in their learning.

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