At Parklands Community Primary School we are Geographers!

Intent

The intent of the Geography Curriculum at Parklands Community Primary School is that our children will be inspired to gain a deep understanding of their local environment and the diverse surroundings throughout the wider world. All children will develop an understanding of the human and physical characteristics that surround them locally, nationally and globally. We intend to equip children with five fundamental golden threads that underpin the Geography curriculum and provide opportunities to consolidate and build knowledge every year. These threads are made up of the human environment, the physical world, sustainability, scale and place. Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject and we want to promote a love of outside learning to all children through exciting fieldwork. Through our teaching, we intend to promote thought, discussion and independence that ultimately enables all children to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.

Implementation 

In order to foster children’s curiosity about the world, at Parklands, we are enthusiastic about Geography and encourage students to explore and ask questions. Geography is taught through a topic driven approach with emphasis on the high-quality delivery of geographical skills. We enable teachers’ autonomy to use the National Curriculum to select objectives and tailor teaching and learning to meet the needs and interests of all children in their class. We aim to provide the following to successfully meet our intent:

• Each class has a long-term plan with two to three Geography topics which are to be covered over the year. The implementation of the ‘Golden threads’ will ensure a continuity of experience and facilitate progression through the year groups. Retrieval and recap tasks to monitor knowledge will be used. Geography will be linked to other areas of the curriculum (particularly History) to develop children’s wider knowledge and encourage them to see connections between subjects.
• Class Teachers will follow the long-term/medium-term planning to ensure high-quality teaching and the use of effective differentiation to promote positive pupil progress.
• Teachers are encouraged to consider opportunities 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.
• Opportunities for classroom-based discussions around what children already know about a certain place/geographical skill and what else they want to find out, will begin each topic. Using exciting hooks, such as “Now Press Play”, will help to make children engaged from the outset.
• Children will be given the opportunity to do geographical topic-based homework tasks to stretch thinking.
• Each topic will have key vocabulary that will be displayed around the classroom to help support the development of children’s geographical language.

Impact

As a result of cross curriculum learning being at the forefront of teachers’ planning, outcomes from all pupils can be evidenced across a range of books and will successfully demonstrate the children’s acquisition of key skills, knowledge and vocabulary. During lessons, teachers actively provide live feedback to ensure children are challenged and supported effectively to meet the objectives of the lesson. As children progress through Parklands, they will develop an appreciation of their local area and then be able to apply that to consider a global, geographical context. Children, who leave Parklands, will have the necessary tools to think independently and discuss issues across all areas of Geography.