Intent:

We want our children to understand what being a geographer means through learning the substantive and disciplinary knowledge within the subject. Our children need to be inquisitive and curious about the world in which they live, learning about local and global geography. It aims to build children’s knowledge and understanding of the world in which we live, the people and places that span our global community and the connections between them, including through some of the main, global geographical issues. From EYFS to Y6, there is clear and coherent progression with opportunities to apply learning. As with all areas of learning, we aim for our curriculum to be representative, aspirational and raise achievement for all pupils.

Implementation:

Our children’s learning centres around the 4 main areas as identified in the national curriculum which is the basis on which our curriculum is built:

• Locational knowledge – children develop their knowledge of where places are through a range of resources. This ranges from the local area and where that is to, cities, countries and continents.

• Place knowledge – children learn about what places are like and how they are different/similar to others. As they progress through the curriculum, they build the substantive and disciplinary knowledge that allows them to identify and explain reasons for this.

• Human and Physical Geography – children understand what they are and how they are related. They are able to identify examples of each, beginning with familiar types in a familiar area, and progress to making comparisons between the 2 types in differing unfamiliar localities.

• Geographical skills and fieldwork – opportunities to read and create maps with progressively demanding degrees of challenge as well as collecting and reporting on evidence and information sourced.

The four areas identified above feature within each year group ensuring that there is breadth and depth throughout the planned curriculum both in terms of substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Our curriculum is purposely planned for progression with clear differences in expectation and challenge when content is revisited.

There is a clear outcome planned for each block of learning with regular opportunities to retrieve, reactivate and apply prior learning. As with all areas of learning, we aim for our curriculum to be representative, aspirational and raise achievement for all pupils. our curriculum enables children to use knowledge and understanding of geographical knowledge that they are familiar with through lived experiences as their starting point and use this to make comparisons and develop their knowledge and understanding of geography as a whole. Each year group explores a specific continent throughout their learning journey giving them a holistic view of the world by the time they leave primary school. Children complete key learning tasks that identify what children have learnt, remembered and are able to apply as well as informing practitioners of any gaps in knowledge.

Impact:

Children will have developed the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it. They will have developed the appropriate skills and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in geography beyond their time at Highfield as well as a deeper understanding of local and global geography. Our children will demonstrate success in the four areas of geography on which our curriculum is built.

The impact of the curriculum is measured through:

• Pupil progress and achievement data
• Learning walks, book monitoring and pupil voice
• Pupil conferencing
• Increase in pupils’ vocabulary in written and spoken format