Geography

OUR INTENT

At St Albert the Great School we believe that God should be at the centre of our curriculum and link this with the teaching across different subjects. Our pupils are taught that God created our wonderful world and we must help look after it. Our curriculum allows pupils to master key subject skills and challenging outcomes through investigating less content at greater depth. We aim to ensure that our pupils have, at the end of each key stage, long term memory of procedural and semantic knowledge. ​

​We believe that geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Here at St Alberts children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. Our geography curriculum enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops and understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. ​

​We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. The curriculum is designed develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable. ​

IMPLEMENTATION

​Teachers personalise and adapt unit resources from Twinkl to help deliver our curriculum. It provides a wide range of units for each age bracket – KS1, lower KS2 and upper KS2 and has continuity and progression through the programmes in terms of knowledge and understanding, geographical skills and conceptual development. Each unit includes detailed subject content knowledge and comprehensive learning and teaching activities. ​

​Each class teaches half a term of geography each term. The children are given opportunities to cover the same objectives and skills, but in different contexts, allowing the children to deepen their learning. By having this opportunity for repetition of skills and objectives, children are able to retrieve prior learning aiding long term retention of knowledge and skills. We believe that learning is a change in the long term memory, and this takes time. ​

There is a high focus on vocabulary that all children must master and use within their work showing an understanding of why there are important to their topic. Some language may be topic specific, but a lot of vocab is repetitive across the topics, tying together the different topics helping children make connections through history. ​

​Learning objectives are outcome focused and progressively more challenging for moving through the key stages, and reflect the curriculum expectations. We recognise that whilst it is important for pupils to increase and extend their knowledge of the subject, it is also vital that they have space and time to develop their learning.

IMPACT

Our Geography Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression, and build on the children’s prior knowledge and understanding of our world around us. We measure the impact of our curriculum through a reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes and through pupil discussions about their learning. The learning objectives and outcomes are cross-referenced to the specific ancillary questions and are progressively more challenging through the year groups. Progress is measured through teacher judgement at the end of each enquiry along with lesson observations, book scrutiny and pupil voice. With a combination of these, we can make a comparative judgement about the learning taking place.​

​When our children leave St Albert the great, we want them to have an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, have an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated. They will have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary be fluent in complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques. Pupils will be highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques and have a passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there with an ability to express well-balanced opinions, with very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.​

OUR CURRICULUM 2024-5 COVERAGE

NATIONAL CURRICULUM EXPECTATIONS

Through our topics – Pupils in KS1 are taught to:

• Locational knowledge
  • name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
  • name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas
• Place knowledge
  • understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country
• Human and physical geography
  • identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
  • use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:
    • key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather
    • key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop
• Geographical skills and fieldwork
  • use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
  • use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map Geography
  • use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
  • use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.

Key stage 2 Pupils are taught to:

• Locational knowledge
  • locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
  • name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
  • identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)
• Place knowledge
  
  • understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America
• Human and physical geography
  
  • describe and understand key aspects of:
    
    • physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
    • human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water Geography
• Geographical skills and fieldwork
  
  • use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
  • use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
  • use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

Geography progression map 2024-5