Vision:

Here at Catcott Primary School, we aim to for fill the requirements of the National Curriculum and beyond by providing a broad, balanced and exciting geography curriculum which is inclusive to all children and enables children to interact with and experience geography. We aim to develop the children’s understanding of the world around them through various geographical topics which support the development of the children’s geography skills and knowledge. We want the children to be engaged in their world and curious about how the world is make up from a geographical point of view and see themselves as geographers. Furthermore, we will enable the children to develop their cross- curricular links within geography to see how geography skills and knowledge support their learning in other areas of the curriculum.

Rationale:

Geography is taught across the school using the Royal Geography Society modules of learning. These modules build on the skills acquired as the children move through the school. Each lesson aims to for the children to answer a key question based on their specific area of learning, such as ‘What product does the UK export to other countries?’  Geography is taught in half termly blocks meaning that each term the children will learn about a different aspect of geography.

Our curriculum has a great emphasis on the children’s understanding of geographical skills and how these are used and put into practice as geographers. The children develop their understanding and implementation of,

• Geographical vocabulary
• Map skills
• Place and locational knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Enquiry skills
• Fieldwork

Through these skills the children can develop their understanding, using these skills across all geography topics.

From reception the children develop their understanding of the world around them.  They learn about different facts and features of their local geography through role play and discussions enabling them to immerse themselves in their topic and develop their understanding through exploration. They also enhance their geographical understanding through regular welly walks in the local area.

In Key Stage One the children start to develop their understanding of the skills required to explore their geographical understanding and awareness. They are introduced to, and use, the correct geographical terminology and learn basic map skills and recognition of the countries, continents and seas. They learn about specific areas of the United Kingdom and other areas across the globe. They will compare and contrast the geographical features of different areas such as The UK and Australia and use physical and digital maps to develop their skills. The children follow an interactive and hands on approach which enables them to discuss their findings and helps them to solidify the skills they are using.

In Key Stage Two the children further develop their understanding of the geographical skills needed to better understand how these can be implemented to explore, compare, contracts and analyse different features of geography and how to use specific geographical tools and instruments. The children develop their used of terminology and regularly use physical and digital maps to investigate their learning. The children further their understanding through learning about compasses, coordinates, contour lines, using symbols and keys and developing a sound knowledge of OS maps. Teaching encourages the children to think about what geographical skills they will need to use to explore different areas of geography and also how to be able to navigate themselves around their local area using specific geographical resources, instruments and vocabulary. The children use their investigations to evaluate their understanding which can be through written pieces, map investigations and analysis, creating graphs or charts and other visual representations. 

Every classroom in the school displays the children’s understanding on working walls which build as the children develop their understanding in each lesson of their geography topic. The children are encouraged to use these walls to make links to their previous lessons. Alongside this, children answer retrieval questions at the start of each lesson which supports their ability to use previous learning from within the current topic but also from other topics from previous years. Children complete a knowledge sheet at the start of each topic to think about their previous learning and how this could link to their current geography topic and then revisit this at the end of their topic to see what more they have learnt.

In addition to termly geography blocks of learning we immerse the children in their geography learning through specific theme weeks based around a geographical skill. Each class will focus on the same skill area but develop their use of the skill through the school.