Geography Curriculum Statement of Intent
Intent
At Raglan Primary School, the Geography curriculum is designed to inspire our pupils and ignite their natural curiosity about the world they live in and the people who inhabit it. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Topics are informed by the national curriculum, the children’s interests and they are designed keeping our curriculum drivers in mind. So, children at Raglan use their Initiative and Communication skills to become critical thinkers, ask geographical questions and explore and investigate our local area.
They are concerned with the Environment and have an awareness of current geographical issues and construct possible solutions for dealing with geographical issues in the local community and school. As members of a diverse community, they are encouraged to make comparisons between locations and identify and explain different views of people including themselves. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Raglan Primary and also to their further education and beyond.
Implementation
Geography is taught as part of a half-termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum.
In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we have implemented our curriculum by designing a Threshold Concept and Progression document. This outlines the key threshold concepts for Geography as Place, Patterns and Processes and Enquiry and Communication and details how these areas develop year on year. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately and enables us to track the progress of our children as Geographers as they journey through Raglan Primary School.
Existing knowledge is checked at the beginning of each topic, tasks are then selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners. This enables children to deepen their knowledge and understanding and also ensures progression. Through our planning and implementation, we aim to grow children’s subject vocabulary through learning the definitions of key words. Outcomes of work are regularly monitored to ensure they reflect a sound understanding of key identified knowledge.
The Early Years Foundation stage follows the ‘Development matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World, people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.
It is important that children develop the skills of a geographer by fully immersing them in all areas of the subject. The local area is fully utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practise. High quality educational visits and visitors are chosen to enhance the curriculum and provide pupils with memorable experiences and rich opportunities which bring learning to life, support children’s vocabulary development and enable them to learn from and appreciate our diverse community and other people’s experiences.
Impact
Outcomes in books evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge relating to each of the identified national curriculum strands, as appropriate to key stage; locational knowledge, place knowledge and human and physical geography. This is in addition to the development and application of key skills, supported by fieldwork.
As children progress throughout the school, they develop an appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. They develop an understanding of global issues and they learn about actions that they can take to have a positive and sustained impact on the environment around them.