Chesham Bois CE School

Geography 

Geography Intent

At Chesham Bois School, we believe geography education should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Geography; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of geographical concepts, knowledge and skills; and for the children to develop a love for geography.

We aim to inspire pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching of Geography at Chesham Bois, should equip pupils 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.

At Chesham Bois CE School, our Geography curriculum is designed to help children understand the world, it’s environments, places near and far and the processes that create or affect them. It encourages a holistic approach of how the world works and develops the skills of place and locational knowledge, human and physical geography, mapping, fieldwork, enquiry, investigation, communication and technology.

Geography Implementation

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. We have created a Geography progression map linked to our 3D curriculum from Year R to Year 6. In EYFS, Geography is taught through Understanding the world. Teachers provide children with a range of themes that give a vast array of geographical opportunities. Children are provided with a range of key texts and experiences to ensure there is a clear progression to the Y1 Geography curriculum.

For KS1 and KS2, Geography is taught as part of half termly topic and we have taken the opportunity to create links between our subjects to help solidify the learning taking place. Planning for Geography is a process in which all teachers are involved, to ensure that the school gives full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Geography 2014’ and the Early Learning Goals for ‘Understanding the World’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Each individual lesson has content that is differentiated between, and within, year groups so that learning is age-appropriate and high expectations are maintained. Children are provided with a Big Question at the start of each unit alongside 6 mini questions. Children are given the opportunity at the start of each topic to make notes about what they already know linked to these questions. At the end of the topic, children refer back to these questions and as an assessment tool and provide answers for them. For the final lesson, children are able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and skills previously learnt, through answering the Big Question. Writing is used across our Geography topics as an opportunity for children to showcase what they have learnt and embed their knowledge.

Our whole school oracy focus underpins our vocabulary-rich Geography curriculum. Teachers use questioning, and provide opportunities for discussion and investigation to support the development of vocabulary, which is explicitly taught and modelled by teachers in every lesson. Key geographical knowledge and language (such as, the name and location of continents, countries, capital cities and oceans) is revisited frequently, to make learning memorable, relevant and easy to retrieve. We support learning with trips to inspire our children and widen their cultural experiences. Teachers are also encouraged to use a range of resources such as videos, photographs and newspaper articles during lessons to help create immersive learning experiences. Each half term, teachers are provided with a book box from our local library that is linked to the Geography topic being taught. Teachers display these books within their classroom and are regularly used for research.

Geography Impact

The impact of our Geography curriculum is measured in a variety of ways: questioning during lesson time, marking children’s written work, listening to child-led discussion, interviewing pupils across the school about their learning, book trawls and using images/videos of children’s practical learning.

By end of the Geography curriculum at CBS, our children will:

· Have a growing knowledge of the world and their place in it.

· Have a wider vocabulary of geographical terms.

 · Aspire to discover more about the world, through reading, travel or the media.

· Know that they can use their voice to express themselves and their opinions.

· Develop their geographical skills, such as, evaluation, creativity, problem solving and enquiry.