Geography

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils, a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Intent

At Rode Heath Primary School there are high expectations for all learners in geography. Geography equips children with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As children progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the framework and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time. Therefore, geography enables children to be aware of: knowledge, skills and cultural capital in order to have a broad and balanced view on the world. Furthermore, children are encouraged to make links to other subjects which create an interconnected curriculum. In order to achieve this, long-term curriculum plans and a wide variety of resources are in place to ensure the effectiveness and accuracy of this subject area.

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all children:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes;
• understand 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.

In addition, we aim to ensure that all children are competent in the geographical skills needed to:

• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes;
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS);
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Implementation

At Rode Heath Primary School we strongly believe that prior knowledge is very important. The scheme of work ensures that all lessons build on prior learning and there are many planned opportunities for analysis and evaluation of recall. This is very important in ensuring progression across the curriculum and Key Stages.

The scheme of work is continually analysed and revised to ensure that a breadth and depth of content is explored as we live on a dynamic planet.

The importance of and passion for geography should permeate throughout the school. Children should be aware of their planet on various scales: local, national and global. They also need to be aware of the human impact on the planet: socially, economically and environmentally, in order to achieve sustainability:

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Brundtland Report, 1987

Impact

Learning, understanding and application is monitored via numerous strategies including: formative and summative techniques. Also, practical tasks such as: fieldwork and making an object to show processes, demonstrate learners’ understanding of a certain topic or problem. 

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