Geography
When teaching geography at Shaw Cross we have a strong emphasis on children understanding where they are from, recognising the facilities and features of their own locality and how this shapes their community. Through this we aim to develop children’s sense of belonging within their own community and within the wider global context.
Throughout school, children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a variety of learning opportunities to secure their knowledge of places, processes and geographical skills. We ensure all children have access to the full content of the EYFS curriculum and the KS1 National Curriculum for Geography. Our geographical enquiry is driven through the learning behaviours set out in the characteristics of effective learning in the early years, and our secrets of success in key stage 1. In a current climate where global issues are at the forefront of world-wide thinking, we facilitate learning where children can reflect on the impact that humans are having on the environment and enable them to establish an early understanding of the role they can play in respecting the things we have in the world and protecting the future of the planet. Where possible, we make the most of our extensive school grounds and local geographical work is based on fieldwork. We supplement this through carefully planned educational visits to provide children with first hand experiences and enhance their geographical understanding.
Our school mission is to ‘Working together nurturing and valuing children’ and as educators, this is something that is one of our highest priorities, both when teaching and interacting with all Shaw Cross children across all age ranges. We ensure parents know and understand what we are teaching in geography and why, and encourage them to support this helping their child notice and understand things within their own locality, supporting educational visits and sharing family experiences from across the globe.
Geography Intent Statement
Our Geography curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. It is designed to reflect our three core principles of being respectful, resilient and reflective.
Children will investigate a range of places, both in Britain and abroad, to help develop their knowledge, understanding and respect of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, reflect on their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. We endeavour to develop resilience in our pupils to apply their geographical skills to find answers, and promote the use of appropriate vocabulary to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences.
Through high quality teaching, we aim to develop the following essential characteristics of geographers:
- An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, both in Britain and the wider world;
- A comprehensive understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected;
- An extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary;
- Fluency in complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills, as well as effective presentation techniques;
- The ability to reach clear conclusions and explain their findings;
- Excellent fieldwork skills as well as other geographical aptitudes and techniques;
- The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current issues in society and the environment;
- A genuine interest in the subject and a real sense of curiosity about the world and the people who live here.
Geography Implementation Statement
At Shaw Cross School we ensure that children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a variety of learning opportunities to secure their knowledge of places, processes and geographical skills. We deliver a geography curriculum that focuses on developing a sense of place that is underpinned, not only by our learning and experiences in SMSC, but a core knowledge of facts, locations and vocabulary. Our curriculum is designed to allow children to build on their geographical knowledge and skills as they progress through the school. Teachers have a clear understanding of the progress of knowledge and make links with previous learning in order to embed understanding. Our children have access to their immediate environment to gather first-hand experience, to enhance their learning and develop a deeper understanding of their local area and to be able to make accurate comparisons with contrasting locations.
In foundation stage our geography teaching involves guiding children to make sense of their physical environment and community through observing and exploring. They develop their geographical skills through ‘the world’ aspect of the understanding the world strand of the EYFS curriculum. Much of their work is based upon personal experience by focussing on their own immediate environment, and noticing, naming and exploring the things they observe. Opportunities are then created for them to look at similarities and differences and to compare to other environments.
The Key Stage One curriculum helps children to develop the curiosity and fascination for the world that has been established in the foundation stage. Geography is taught through a cross-curricular topic approach where children develop a greater understanding and awareness of the diverse nature of the world, created through both the natural and man-made environments. They begin to reflect on the relationship between physical and human processes, the impact that this has on the environment and how this causes changes over time. Within this, children continually develop the use of subject-specific vocabulary. Children enhance their awareness of location through the use of maps, atlases and internet sources. This enables them to understand where they belong both within a UK and a global context.
At Shaw Cross, we have a diverse community and we use this to learn about different places and cultures within our community and around the world. We share information about global events – especially through our weekly Picture News stories - and explore different cultures world-wide. For children who do not experience the world outside of their immediate locality this opens their eyes to new horizons. As a staff, we aim to share our own experiences and provide as much knowledge of the outside world as possible so that children are aware that there are many countries and places of interest to visit and work beyond their own locality.
Our children will achieve success in geography by developing the following key skills:
Key Vocabulary:
The promotion of a language rich Geography curriculum is essential to the successful acquisition of knowledge and understanding in Geography.
Independent learning:
In Geography children are encouraged to enquire about their topic of interest and develop their independence when locating places, describing places and exploring the outdoors.
Resources:
Children will access resources to acquire learning through atlases, text books, maps, digital technology and photographs.
Children will use a range of secondary resources to develop their knowledge and understanding that is integral to their learning.
Enhancement:
In order to enhance the curriculum for geography children will access the local area; by making connections through all the different curriculum areas and have access to a local map. With this map they navigate and apply their geographical skills when accessing the local area.
Educational Visits to enhance their cultural capital:
Where applicable links to geography will be made to develop the children’s topical learning.
Geography Impact Statement
Well-constructed and well-taught lessons result in our children being able to apply skills essential for lifelong learning as reflected in our characteristic of effective learning and our secrets of success.
Pupils leave KS1 with a developing knowledge of their local area and an understanding of the location of other countries and cities around the world. Pupils are able to discuss and recall a variety of events and where they happened in the world, as well as explain aspects of human and physical geography and confidently use maps and atlases (physical and digital). Knowledge and skills will have developed progressively to not only enable them to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to prepare pupils to become competent geographers in KS2.
At Shaw Cross School, children record their geographical learning in a variety of ways. Evidence of learning and progress may be in the form of: photographs of practical activities, observations of the use of resources such as maps and atlases, use of digital mapping, extended writing, evidence of field work. Throughout the course of lessons, elements of challenge or support are provided to ensure all pupils achieve at their individual level. Feedback is used to scaffold learning, challenge misconceptions and to facilitate deeper learning.
The impact of the geography curriculum is measured through assessment of knowledge and skills. This may take place in the form of assessment for learning; challenge tasks; independent and group enquiry; and end of unit questions. Pupil voice and book scrutiny indicates high expectations and reflect what pupils have learned. Our pupils perform in line with those nationally.
Our pupils leave Shaw Cross with an enthusiasm. enjoyment and interest in learning about geography. They have had their eyes opened to a world beyond their own community, and have had their interest ignited to undertake new life experiences now and in the future in a world that they are learning to respect.
We ensure all children have access to the content of the EYFS curriculum and the National Curriculum for geography.
Click here for the EYFS curriculum.
Click here for the Key Stage One curriculum (year 1 and 2).