CHRIST CHURCH CE (VA) JUNIOR SCHOOL
Geography
School Vision
‘We seek to transform the lives of our children within a Christian environment, nurturing the wellbeing of each child, promoting the highest academic achievement and instilling a lifelong love of learning.’
Intent
I alone know the plans I have for you; plans for the future you hope for. Jeremiah 29:11
God’s plans for us are limitless. He knows us best and plans for us to reach our unique and individual potential, shaped in the palm of His hand. This potential may reveal itself when we least expect it, just like God’s love being revealed to us. We believe that we are shaping children, not just in the present, but also for the future – enabling them to be global citizen’s in God’s rapidly changing world.
Our aim at Christ Church CE (VA) Junior School is to inspire children’s curiosity, interest and appreciation for the world that we live in. We are GEOGRAPHERS! We want our children to love geography! We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be cartographers, town planners, conservationists or weather forecasters. Our aim is that, through the teaching of Geography at Christ Church, we provide a purposeful platform for exploring, appreciating and understanding the world in which we live and how it has evolved. We want to ensure that through Geography, pupils are able to explore the relationship between the Earth and its people through the study of place, space and environment. In Geography, pupils in our school will learn the skills of understanding locational knowledge; how and where people fit into its overall structure. We also intend for children to become passionate and knowledgeable about our local community and beyond, by learning through experiences in practical and fieldwork activities.
Where possible, geography is links are made so that geographical learning is interwoven into history to ensure children have a good understanding of how changes have occurred over time. As the national curriculum states, ‘teaching should 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.’ The topics taught have been specifically selected to ensure all pupils make progress and embed knowledge throughout the years.
Implementation
At Christ Church, Geography is taught in for half a term every term for one hour per week. The subject is explicitly taught and units are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
- Our Geography curriculum is designed so that children learn about their school or local area before working out to areas or regions of the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. We have developed a progression of skills with each year group, which enables pupils to build on and develop their knowledge and skills each year. Cross-curricular links are planned for, with other subjects such as Maths, Writing and Computing being incorporated within geography lessons and the curriculum.
- Location knowledge, fieldwork and map work are woven throughout the Geography topics. Effective use of educational visits, local fieldwork and visitors are planned, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experiences within the Geography curriculum. In-depth fieldwork opportunities are greatly amplified through out bespoke local area units where children go out into the field to conduct observations, surveys, investigations and field sketches. The use of maps and compasses enhances this experience.
- At the start of each unit children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic. In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous units as well as previous lessons.
- Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each unit which details some key information, key questions and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and are used as a reference document.
- In geography lessons, children are given clear success criteria in order to achieve the Learning Intention with different elements of independence. Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children are able to achieve their learning intention, with misconceptions addressed within it. Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the Geography curriculum.
- Teachers use highly effective Assessment for Learning at different points in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed. Assessment is then used to inform planning, preparation, differentiation and address misconceptions within that lesson, or for the next lesson.
Impact
Our geography curriculum offers high quality and well planned lessons which encourage progression. Geographical questioning helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the world and its people. Alongside geographical questions, our high-quality knowledge organisers offer key facts and vocabulary which are embedded in each lesson. Through offering a wide range of terminology we are able to use this new knowledge to help with our assessment of topic understanding, as well as helping us to identify areas in which we need to encourage deeper learning.
Continuity and progression in the curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within Geography. Through our curriculum, pupils learn to think critically and ask perceptive questions.
In order to ensure our aims have been met, we scrutinise topics through:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Sharing good practice in staff meetings.
- Marking of written work in books against the schools marking policy.
- Subject Leaders to analyse data using Target Tracker