Geography

subject at a glance geography.pdf

 Intent

At The Rissington School, we provide high quality, aspirational geography education that inspires in our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world, and its people, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Pupils are equipped 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. Pupils develop competency in a range of geographical skills. As pupil's progress through The Rissington School, their knowledge and skills gained in Geography are advanced in readiness for secondary education.

Our school values of ABC (Aspire Belong Challenge) and Golden Threads are also drivers for our curriculum design.

Aspire – We plan lessons which give the children aspirational experiences that develop their skills as geographers. They are shown a range of diverse people as part of each topic; giving all children someone who they can learn from and aspire to be like.

Belong – Children learn about their place as part of the wider world, as well as their place within the local community. We work collaboratively to develop our geographical skills and fieldwork.

Challenge – Children are challenged to develop their geographical skills and use an increasing level of sophisticated language to describe geographical features.

The Rissington school’s Golden Threads are Resilience, Oracy and Vocabulary and Diversity and Equality.

Resilience – To encourage resilience children are given opportunities to draw deductions based on geographical evidence, as well as working on enquiries and fieldwork that may require working in groups.

Oracy and vocabulary – We expand vocabulary through specific subject teaching of the vocabulary linked to geographical topics and concepts, as well as develop oracy through regular discussions on place knowledge.

Diversity and equality – We make sure diversity and equality is addressed by looking at a diverse range of people and places through our topics. Important people or peoples studied are representative of men and women from different backgrounds and cultures.

The Rissington School is a split site school. While we embrace the differences this may bring, the children across both sites belong to one school; and as such receive the same Geography provision.

Implementation

Our Geography curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.

The curriculum planning outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way including: 

• Locational Knowledge;
• Place Knowledge;
• Human and Physical Geography;
• Geographical Skills and Fieldwork

Our Geography curriculum will ensure that pupils are able build on secure prior knowledge. The content will be planned and organised by each year group through the long-term plan and will follow the Rissington Geography Overview – Appendix ‘A’. Content knowledge, vocabulary and skills are set out in a greater level of detail in the medium-term plan to meet the needs of the pupils. There is also a progression document which is to be used to ensure planning matches expected progression. Learning objectives should be drawn from the progression documents.

At the Rissington School, Geography is delivered through subject specific teaching organised into blocks under a theme. Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils. We teach in a two-year cycle of topics (KS1, LKS2, UKS2) that enable our children to develop skills across the curriculum, as well as consolidate knowledge.

In the early years at The Rissington School pupils are introduced to Geography by making observations in their immediate environment such as the weather, simple mapping skills are introduced using the outdoor areas at both sites. They are enabled to recognise similarities between life in this country and other countries.

The Geography units taught are designed to enable the children to develop their knowledge of place and location, as well as the human and physical features of these places. In addition to this, our units enable the children to understand the diverse people that live in these places; the challenges they may face; and what their daily lives may look like.

All learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make meaningful connections. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.

Learning will be supported through the use of key vocabulary, working walls, medium- and short-term planning that provides children with scaffolding that enables them to retain new facts and vocabulary into their long-term memory.

Learning walls in every classroom provide constant scaffolding for children. Tier three subject specific vocabulary is displayed on the learning walls along with key facts and questions, and model exemplars of the work being taught.

Geography assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular units of work to inform teachers with their planning of lesson activities and objectives. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each topic where geography objectives have been covered; an objective tracker on medium-term planning is used to inform teachers and leaders of school improvements, or skills that need to be further enhanced.

Our geographers will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom, where appropriate, to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and deepen their understanding.

Our SEND pupils are able to access the full geography curriculum through quality first teaching, as well as adapted resources and support where appropriate.

Impact

At The Rissington School, our pupils are able to talk confidently about what they have learnt in geography, using subject specific vocabulary.

In the Early Years, children can make observations in their immediate environment such as the weather, and simple mapping skills are developed using the outdoor areas at both sites. They are enabled to recognise similarities between life in this country and other countries.

Pupil voice throughout the school demonstrates that pupils enjoy geography and are able to recall their learning over time.

Pupils’ work demonstrates that geography is taught at an age-appropriate standard across each year group with opportunities planned in to challenge and stretch all learning.

Pupils work is of good quality and demonstrates pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.

Pupils’ have learnt about a range of diverse people and peoples that are representative of society as a whole.

Medium- and short-term planning will show that all pupils are able to access the Geography curriculum along with areas of challenge and support.

National curriculum in England: geography programmes of study - GOV.UK