Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future - Michael Palin

Intent

Exploring places helps pupils foster a curiosity about the world they live in and the people who live in it. At St John’s pupils will develop their geographical skills and build knowledge about people and places in the world. We will ensure a balance of ‘sense of place’ and substantive subject knowledge to develop kind geographers who know people and the places they live are intrinsically linked.

To ensure children receive a comprehensive and progressive Geography curriculum, we follow a clear, planned and sequenced scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum, developed from and following the Kapow Geography scheme.

Geography at St John's is taught as as a subject in its own right.  Children, utilising their oracy skills, take part in discussions, presentations and decision-making. Each unit we teach has a field work element, allowing these vital skills to be progress and be to be revisited regularly. 

Implementation

Geography is taught as a subject in its own right. It may link with a year group's whole topic or may be taught more discretely. Each year group completes 3 units of geographical study across a school year. We follow a two-year rolling programme due to mixed age classes. 

 The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:
• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Geographical skills and fieldwork

We have a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each year group. 

The Kapow Primary scheme is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography.

Retriveal of key information is supported through the use of Knowledge Organisers. These identify key information the pupils need to have learned by the end of the topic and acts as a tool to support pupils in retaining and retrieving knowledge for life-long learning.

The two EYFS units provide a solid foundation of geographical skills, knowledge and enquiry for
children to transition successfully onto Key stage 1 Geography learning, whilst also working towards the Development matters statements and Early Learning Goals.

Enquiry questions form the basis for our Key stage 1 and 2 units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. The questions are  open-ended with no preconceived answers. This helps increase engagement and discussion. Children learn how to collect, interpret and represent data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.

 We have started to establish links between our geography curriculum and local experts/businesses. Within the Y5/6 Energy project, children visited SolarSense who set them the task of establishing where to place a solar panel in our playground. 

Fieldwork

Robust and regular fieldwork is the cornerstone of an ambitious and fulfilling geography curriculum. 

Each of our units contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. Kapow Primary units follow an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National curriculum. This ensures children will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats.

Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds. Larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features are being developed within year groups. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places.

Impact

The impact of this high-quality teaching and learning at St Johns will be seen through:

• Children developing a curiosity about the world and the people who live in it
• Children confidently applying geographical skills and knowledge in different contexts
• Children presenting and answer their own geographical enquiries using planned and specifically chosen methodologies, collected data and digital technologies
• Children meeting the ‘Understanding the World’ Early Learning Goals at the end of EYFS, and the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Geography by the end of Year 2 and Year 6
• Children understanding the Geography as a subject is a window into the world and being fascinated about different places 

Progression Plan

 Geography Progression Plan