Geography

Quality of Education

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. Children investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad that include South America, Italy, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, the Water Cycle, Rivers and Mountains– to help develop their knowledge and understanding 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 of Wolverhampton so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. We also developing the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences.

We use the 2014 Geography Programme of Study as the basis for our curriculum planning in geography, but we have adapted this to the local context by building on the successful units of work already in place. We ensure that there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit and we built planned progression into the scheme of work so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.

We teach geography throughout topic-based curriculum. Essential skills are developed through Geography. Children can question, make observations, investigate, hypothesise, and form opinions through geographical study. They gain practical skills for later life, such as map reading, drawing plans and collecting and recording data.

Environmental issues are increasingly relevant to our world and this is reflected in the study of Geography. There is a role for Geography to play in understanding environmental issues and exploring ideas for managing a sustainable environment.

Geography stimulates curiosity and imagination and we aim to build upon the child’s ‘personal geography’ by developing geographical skills, understanding and knowledge through studying places and themes.

Geography encourages children to learn through experience particularly through fieldwork and practical activities.

Children are taught within mixed ability class groups. All children have a Knowledge Organiser of the topics they are studying at the start of a new geography unit. These are discussed and explored with the class teacher at the start of the topics. The children can use the Knowledge Organisers throughout the topic to refer to for vocabulary, knowledge, skills, interesting facts and diagrams to enhance their learning.

At the start of every new academic year, children are given a fact file about human and physical events. The fact file progresses through the year groups and in years 5 and 6 children must then be able to answer questions and label diagrams on the fact file. This enables the children to learn about physical and human geography by reinforcing the knowledge every year and develops their knowledge by completing more complex fact files.

Children also study ‘Earth Day’ and ‘World Ocean Day.’

Children complete a ‘cold and hot task’ process where children identify their own gaps of knowledge at the start of a topic and then assess their gained knowledge of the topic through the use of the hot task.

One topic of stand-alone geography is covered in each year group that is studied for a term. Each geography topic includes a WOW starter and has a themed visit out of school or a specialist visitor into school. These topics includes use of our Now Press Play resource, which encourages experiential learning. Children take part in Outdoor Classroom day twice a year and we use cross curricular links for this learning opportunity.

The teaching of geography provides opportunities for: group work, mixed ability work, whole class teaching, independent work, peer assessment and self-assessment.

By implementing the intent, children should be confident in the following areas:

An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, both in Britain and the wider world.
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.
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.

Assessment will initially come from questioning in class and marking of geography books.

We assess children’s work in geography by making informal judgements as we observe them during each history lesson. On completion of a piece of work, the teacher marks the work and comments as necessary.

Children are teacher assessed at the end of each topic of work according to key learning objectives and skills. A grade of: Working towards, working at or working beyond age related expectations is given. Assessments are recorded by the class teacher and monitored by the history co-ordinator.

The subject leader works alongside the SLT to monitor standards of teaching and learning.

The work of the history subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of history, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school.