Geography
Intent:
At St Luke’s, we value the importance of geography, how it shapes the natural world around us and impacts our daily life. This ensures pupils can see the value in their geography curriculum. Our geography curriculum is developed to increase pupil knowledge and build an awareness of how geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. With a natural curiosity, our pupils are provided with opportunities to think like a geographer and to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. This supports our pupils to develop and build on prior knowledge, so that the new information they are learning, can be stored in their long-term memory.
Implementation:
Teachers strive to create a positive attitude to geography learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of answering difficult questions. We ensure that:
- clear unit content has been refined to ensure pupils are building on previous learning to gain a deeper understanding
- pupils work like geographers to apply and master the appropriate year group skills which support them to develop their knowledge of the subject
- unit vocabulary is explicitly taught and modelled by teachers in every geography lesson
- key geographical knowledge and language (such as the name and location of continents, countries, capital cities and oceans) is revisited frequently to make learning memorable, relevant and easy to retrieve
- existing knowledge is assessed at the beginning of each topic to ensure any gaps in knowledge will be covered
- geography lessons are as practical as possible to facilitate enquiry based learning whilst continuing to encourage their love of geography
- the local area is fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded into each unit
- cross curricular links are made, where appropriate, particularly with reading and writing.
- events such as Fair Trade Fortnight and Earth Day provide a broader provision. pupils are encouraged to ask questions and find their own answers
- opportunities to learn at home with families and consolidate understanding of knowledge and enquiry is celebrated at school and raises the profile of geography
- pupils are encouraged to self-assess each lesson to evaluate their own learning
- at the end of each unit, summative assessment takes place through precise questioning and the completion of end of unit quizzes, to focus on our end points
Impact:
Our approach at St Luke’s allows pupils to build on their knowledge as they progress through the school, making connections with their previous learning and the world around them. Our engagement with the local environment ensures that pupils learn through varied and first hand experiences. Pupils have extensive opportunities to develop their enquiry skills and have the confidence to ask probing questions, which they investigate. They are engaged, passionate and enthusiastic about the subject which they take with them as they progress through their education. Pupils will:
- achieve age related expectations in geography at the end of their Key Stage
- retain geographical knowledge with real life context
- develop and broaden their geographical skills
- work collaboratively and practically, to explore the world around them
- be able to explain their understanding and provide reasoning