“At Barlby Bridge Community School, geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it.”
The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Barlby Bridge Primary and also to their further education and beyond. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
The main aspects of geography to be taught are determined by the programmes of study in the National Curriculum 2014.
Continuity and Progression
Early Years explore geographical themes and content through the Understanding of the World strand of the EYFS curriculum. This involves guiding the children to develop sense of their physical world, as well as their community, through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
During Key Stage 1, pupils will investigate their local area and a contrasting area in the United Kingdom or abroad, finding out about the environment in both areas and the people who live there. They also begin to learn about the wider world. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions about people, places and environments, and use geographical skills and resources such as maps and photographs.
During Key Stage 2, Pupils extend and develop their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America; studying the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They continue to develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
Intent
At Barlby Bridge Community Primary School our geography teaching offers opportunities to:
- 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, to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes.
- To provide children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Selby so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.
- To foster an understanding of where places are, what they are like, and how they are interdependent and interconnected both in Britain and the wider world.
- Foster excellent fieldwork skills as well as other geographical aptitudes and techniques.
- Introduce pupils to the language and vocabulary of geography.
- Support or provide a means of enriching other areas of the curriculum.
Implementation
At Barlby Bridge we implement a variety of teaching and learning styles which reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in geography. We aim to deliver lessons that foster a sense of enjoyment and a greater understanding of the world. Teaching and learning of geography at Barlby Bridge includes:
- Planned content taken from the school’s long term curriculum is taught in half termly blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning.
- Class teachers identify the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consider how to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group and across the school.
- A hierarchy of subject specific vocabulary is delivered during lessons and drawn upon to help sequential learning during phases and across phases.
- Teachers present subject matter clearly; providing opportunities for discussion; identifying any misconceptions; and adapting teaching as necessary to best meet the needs of the pupils.
- Formative assessment is used to inform teaching, check understanding and to help learners embed knowledge into the long term memory.
- Teaching makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the geography of their locality through the application of field work.
- Cross curricular links are made, with strong links between geography and English to foster further contextual learning.
- Monitoring of pupils’ work is used to evaluate the range and balance of the curriculum; to ensure that tasks meet the needs of the different learners; and that the acquisition of key knowledge is progressive and being evidence through outcomes.
Impact
- At Barlby Bridge the geography curriculum is shaped to ensure it is fully inclusive for every child; providing a board and balanced curriculum that encompasses British values throughout and sequential development of geographical knowledge and skills.
- The 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.
- Pupils have a strong knowledge of where places are and what they are like, both in Britain and the wider world.
- Pupils are able to review their learning and with encouragement can identify personal targets. Comparatives are made with what pupils know at the start and end of every unit.
- Pupils have the ability to ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current issues in society and the environment.
- Pupils’ work books evidence a board and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of knowledge and skills that are progressive across phases and throughout school.
- They learn how to draw and interpret maps and use subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography, with accuracy and confidence.
- As pupils progress, they deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.