Geography | The Glebe Primary School

Please click link below for an overview of Geography across the school:

Intent
At The Glebe Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. We endeavour to provide all children to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world; in other words, to think like a geographer. Our curriculum encompasses the progressive development of geographical concepts, knowledge and skills; and for the children to develop a love for geography.

The geography curriculum at The Glebe Primary School enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas, which are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops and understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. 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. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Teesside 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 develop the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding within a range of tasks. Our curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at The Glebe Primary School and also into their further education and beyond.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Geography is taught as a stand-alone topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. Units within The Glebe’s geography curriculum have been carefully chosen and planned in line with other subjects such as History to ensure children have sufficient prior knowledge to access the curriculum. Within each unit, key knowledge and skills and concepts have been identified. Lessons have been planned within a progression map, to ensure progression across units is evident throughout each year group, across the school.

In order to foster children’s curiosity about the world, we encourage children to explore and ask questions. Geography teaching focuses on enabling children to think as geographers. Geography provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of more able pupils through the investigations, analysing sources and writing extended pieces.

At The Glebe Primary School, we provide a variety of opportunities for geography learning inside and outside the classroom. Teachers consider opportunities available to use the school grounds and the local area for fieldwork to enable children to base learning on first hand experiences to enhance teaching and learning in Geography. Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional geography learning outside the classroom.

Impact

Within Geography teaching and learning, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed on investigative learning opportunities to help children gain a coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school. Our Geography curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work. Children will deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and how this affects landscapes and environments.

By the time children leave The Glebe Primary School they will:

Have an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
Have an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
Have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
Be fluent in geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
Be highly developed and frequently utilise fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
Have a passion for the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
Have the ability to express well-balanced opinions

At The Glebe we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Assessing children’s geographical skills and understanding within the answering of the unit enquiry-question
Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
Marking of written work in books.