Geography at Langford Village Community Primary School

Intent

The teaching of Geography at Langford Village Community School encourages our children to have curiosity and inquisitiveness about the world in which they live, whilst comparing and contrasting human and physical features.

Our Geography curriculum enables our children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferrable to other curriculum areas; therefore, promoting cultural, moral and social development. Geography is by nature an investigative subject; therefore, our curriculum aims to provoke questions and to deepen children’s understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes and to instil a sense of environmental responsibility at a local and global level. We also encourage children to research and explore key themes to enable them to answer some of their own questions.

Through high quality teaching, our aim is to develop the following essential characteristics of geographers:

• An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, including significant geographical interests locally, nationally and globally
• A comprehensive understanding of the ways in which places are independent and interconnected
• An extensive base of geographical vocabulary
• Fluency in geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills
• The ability to reach clear conclusions and explain their findings
• Excellent field work skills that can be carried out independently
• The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current issues in society and the environment
• To be able to apply and use skills taught in Geography across the curriculum
• To be able to use a variety of maps

Implementation

The National Curriculum forms the basis for our Geography teaching in Key Stages One and Two. Therefore, lessons are structured to cover the skills required in order to meet the aims of the national curriculum as well as any specific local area knowledge that we perceive as important as a school.

Foundation Stage planning for Knowledge and Understanding of the World shows how we engage our Reception children in early geographical learning experiences. Planning is based on the Whole School Plan and is progressive each year. It is broken down into the following areas; Locational knowledge, Place knowledge, Human and Physical features, Fieldwork, Interpretation of geographical knowledge and Communicating geographical information. Teachers plan activities based these topics and links are made to other curriculum areas where possible. The topics have been organised to provide progression of knowledge in relation to knowledge and the development of key skills. This is particularly evident in pupils’ progressive understanding of location and place, which builds from local to global. Other aspects such as map skills are built up progressively. Visiting experts and trips off site are organised when we feel that they can enhance the learning process.

Impact

By the end of their education at Langford Village Community School, our children will have gained a broad and balanced body of geographical knowledge and a wide range of transferable skills. We aspire for children to have the knowledge to explore, understand and navigate the world around them as well as knowing how they fit into it. We hope that our children become citizens who choose to reflect on how they can help protect and shape the world around them. The impact of our curriculum is measured in terms of the extent to which pupils have developed new knowledge, understanding and skills and that they can use and recall this with fluency. In Geography, this will be measured by:

• Regular knowledge-check activities and teacher assessment during lessons
• In school attainment tracking
• Engagement in geographical enrichment activities
• Subject Leader monitoring: lesson visits, auditing of books, assessment analysis, pupil interviews and questionnaires, staff interviews and questionnaires
• Governor monitoring