Geography

Intent

Our Geography curriculum aims to have a lasting impact on our pupils. By nurturing their curiosity, developing their skills, and fostering their understanding of the world, we prepare them for future challenges. We believe that through Geography, our pupils will become compassionate global citizens, equipped with the knowledge and empathy needed to make a positive difference in the world.

Teaching will equip pupils 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 pupils progress, we want their growing knowledge about the world to help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Our intention is for pupils to have the knowledge, understanding and skills that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Our Geography curriculum is structured in line with the aims of the National Curriculum. In Early Years, this is linked to Development Matters.

Far Forest Primary Academy's Geography curriculum will nurture curious minds, fostering global understanding, and preparing our pupils for a future filled with possibilities.

Implementation

Teaching Approach:

• Learning begins with an engaging hook and links are made to prior learning to capture students' interest and reinforce the ‘sticky knowledge’ that we want all children to know and remember.
• Concepts are mapped to show progression.
• Each lesson starts with a retrieval quiz: questions from the previous year, topic, and lesson.
• Teachers adapt their delivery and planning so that all pupils can access the learning. 

Lesson Structure:

• Introduce the overarching key enquiry question
• Learning focus is shared with the class.
• Revisit of prior learning through a retrieval task as well as a revisit of key knowledge e,g, continents, oceans and seas. The children will complete 3 questions from last year, last topic, last lesson.
• Experiences to explore and investigate the enquiry question are shared with pupils.
• On-going formative assessment will take place in lessons and throughout the sequence.

Impact

Pupils will...

• 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
• 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.

Assessment

The assessment process for children involves several key components. At the beginning of each lesson, students engage in evidence informed retrieval practice tasks to reinforce substantive knowledge. On-going formative assessments also inform next steps and build on foundational and new knowledge. Pupils will also be assessed through on-going observations and how they work like a geographer e.g. interpreting maps, analysing data and communicating this using accurate terminology.

Pupil voice is also utilised to assess how well pupils can articulate their learning from the work completed in their books and the connections they make to prior learning.

Importance of Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is essential, especially given our rural location. Understanding the wider world is a key driver for our curriculum. We make every effort to organise trips, speakers to the school and workshops so that children experience life in all its fullness. Diversity is one of our curriculum drivers, we ensure that our pupils receive a curriculum that understands and celebrates differences.

For a detailed overview of our Geography Curriculum please explore the documents below.