Geography

Intent

The intent of the geography curriculum at The Colleton is to inspire our children’s curiosity, fascination and appreciation about their world and the people that live in it. We aim to ensure that our children develop an understanding of the wider world around them and the inter-relationships between people and place at local, regional, national and global scales so that they can become responsible, respectful and considerate world citizens, both now and in the future. This includes providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Twyford and the wider Thames Valley so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.

We also aim to develop:

• contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places;
• understanding of 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;
• the ability to interpret a range of sources of geographical information, reach clear conclusions, explain findings and communicate these in a variety of ways;
• fluency in complex, geographical enquiry including collecting, analysing and communicating a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork;

Implementation

Our geography curriculum is driven by three golden threads that provide a progressive framework for learning and help to deepen children’s understanding of what is being taught by revisiting these within and across year groups so that children can build upon their existing knowledge. These golden threads are:

Location that develops a knowledge of where places are and what they are like, both in Britain and the wider world through using and interpreting a variety of maps to identify locations of places.

Diversity allows our children to understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of their own local area and others around the world. This looks at how people and places are different and diverse, even across one country or continent, including the weather and climates.

Relationships looks at the difference between human and physical geography and their key features. It considers how physical features impact the lives of people e.g. settlement, factors that influence it and how people impact on the physical environment around them by identifying cause, impact and response.

In the Early Years our children develop an Understanding of the World by using simple maps, exploring the natural world as well as learning about people, culture and communities. From Year 1, our geography curriculum is progressively sequenced across the school and enables children to develop subject knowledge, alongside key subject skills, and as a result, develop as geographers.

Our curriculum ensures that

• there is a sequence of lessons for each unit, which carefully plans for the progression of geographical skills and knowledge through each of the 3 golden threads by building on prior learning
• the progression of vocabulary enables children to know more and remember more
• challenging questions allow our children to enquire and to apply their learning
• field work in our school environment and our local area provides opportunities for children to experience relevant and contextual geography allowing them to develop subject knowledge and gain a range of skills
• enrichment opportunities and visits, including residentials in Years 4 and 6, are carefully planned to include opportunities to further develop their geographical knowledge, understanding and skills

Impact

By the time our children leave us, they have an appreciation of their local area and its place within a wider geographical context. They are able to make comparisons of physical and human features in different locations around the world, discussing the diversity in these places and explaining how relationships between the human and physical aspects impact on these places and the people that live there.

The children are able to demonstrate their acquired knowledge, understanding and skills through:

• written recording in their Integrated Studies books that answers key topic questions
• their use of vocabulary in their writing and during discussions
• completing mind maps at the beginning and end of topic units
• their discussions and reasoning
• their approach to fieldwork tasks

The subject leader monitors this through discussions with the children, reviewing written outcomes and ongoing discussions with colleagues.