Intent

Geography is an essential part of the curriculum at Fellside.  It provides a means of exploring, appreciating and understanding the world in which we live, including its wealth of diversity and knowledge of how it has evolved. Geography explores the relationship between the Earth and its diverse people through the study of place, space and environment. It contributes to the cultural, social, spiritual and moral life of children as they acquire knowledge of a range of different cultures and traditions, and learn tolerance and understanding of other people and environments. We aim for children to learn the skills of understanding a locality and how and where people fit into its overall structure, understanding first that their locality is on their doorstep, before broadening this to that which is the locality for others around the world, comparing this to their own.  

The teaching of geography is inextricably linked to the interaction between the physical and the human environment, including our current focus on sustainability and protecting the planet we all share. Several of our curriculum units present opportunities to help make children aware of the effects of humans upon their surroundings, as well as how they might contribute to protecting the Earth’s resources for future generations.

Implementation

Our geography curriculum is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning, and our curriculum units are built around key themes that are revisited to ensure children’s world view is gradually increased during their schooling, and their understanding of locational and place knowledge expands alongside their knowledge of the influence of this on humans frequenting these areas.  Opportunities to employ fieldwork (especially mapping) are routinely capitalised on, as well as using tenets of geographical enquiry to present more open ended challenges that raise topical issues that affect us all. 

By the end of their schooling at Fellside, children possess a broad geographical knowledge and can demonstrate skills that include the following

• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Geographical Enquiry
• Fieldwork

Geography is taught in discrete blocks, so that children achieve depth in their learning. Lessons begin with a key question that provide a hook for stimulating learning.  Teachers give a clear focus to the requirements of the national curriculum objectives for geography– these are specifically referenced alongside the key question for each lesson. Children are given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom where appropriate to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding.

In so doing, our curriculum ensures that children know more and remember more.

Impact

Pupil progress is assessed at the end of the teaching and learning of curriculum units using a range of formative assessment activities including assessing pupil outcomes against key skills and knowledge criteria.  Pupils are also given opportunities to demonstrate the application of their learning through responses to our ‘Thinking Deeper’ challenges that are set at the end of each curriculum unit.  These are designed to provide children with an opportunity to reflect, refine, extend and make links with their learning.  Subject leaders and coordinators hold regular pupil conferencing activities to determine how children are making sense of geographical themes across year groups and key stages over time.

Curriculum Units by Year Group