Geography Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Intent

Our Geography curriculum aims to inspire pupils to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world; in other words, to think like a geographer. We want our pupils to develop the confidence to question and observe places, measure and record necessary data in various ways, and analyse and present their findings. Through our carefully chosen scheme of work, we aim to build an awareness of how Geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. We aim to encourage pupils to become resourceful, active citizens who will have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.

Our Geography curriculum encourages:

• A strong focus on developing both geographical skills and knowledge.
• Critical thinking, with the ability to ask perceptive questions and explain and analyse evidence.
• The development of fieldwork skills across each year group.
• A deep interest and knowledge of pupils’ locality and how it differs from other areas of the world.
• A growing understanding of geographical terms and vocabulary.

Our carefully chosen Geography units enable pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets in the National curriculum.

Implementation

We follow the National Curriculum as the core of our Geography teaching, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression.  Our carefully chosen geography scheme is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.

Locational knowledge, in particular, is reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography.

Enquiry questions form the basis for our geography units, meaning that our pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. Our questions are designed to be open-ended with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In attempting to answer them, children learn how to collect, interpret and present data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.

Each of our geography units contain elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. In addition to this, we hold annual ‘Fieldwork Challenges’ within our school grounds and local area. These challenges include our ‘Easter Fieldwork Challenge’ and the Geographical Association’s ‘Fieldwork Fortnight’. Our fieldwork challenges and unit tasks follow an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National curriculum. This ensures children will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats.

Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables our pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places.

In order to develop and rehearse our Geographical Skills further, both our pupils and staff access Digimaps for Schools within their units and during their designated ‘Fieldwork Challenge’ times. This highly engaging resource inspires and encourages our pupils to be curious and fascinated about the world.  The Digimap software enables our school community to have digital access to modern day and historic maps and detailed aerial imagery to support our teaching and learning within our Geography lessons but also across other areas of the curriculum.

Impact

By having an enquiry-based approach to our Geographical learning, our staff are able to assess our pupils against the National curriculum expectations for Geography.

The impact of our Geography teaching is regularly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each of our units have a unit quiz and knowledge catcher, which are used at end of the unit to assess children’s understanding. Opportunities for children to present their findings using their geographical skills also forms part of the assessment process in each unit.

After implementing our progressive Geography curriculum, pupils are able to leave Hugo Meynell Primary School equipped with a range of skills and knowledge to enable them to study Geography with confidence at Key stage 3.

We hope to shape children into curious and inspired geographers with respect and appreciation for the world around them alongside an understanding of the interconnection between the human and the physical.

The expected impact of following our Geography curriculum is that the children of Hugo Meynell Primary School will:

• Compare and contrast human and physical features to describe and understand similarities and differences between various places in the UK and the wider world.

• Name, locate and understand where and why the physical elements of our world are located and how they interact, including processes over time relating to climate, biomes, natural disasters and the water cycle.

• Understand how humans use the land for economic and trading purposes, including how the distribution of natural resources has shaped this.

• Develop an appreciation for how humans are impacted by and have evolved around the physical geography surrounding them and how humans have had an impact on the environment, both positive and negative.

• Develop a sense of location and place around the UK and some areas of the wider world using the eight-points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and keys on maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs and digital mapping.