Geography

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Intention

At Samlesbury Church of England Primary School, the national curriculum is taught through a theme based approach. Where possible, opportunities for cross curricular links are made giving a meaningful context for the learning. Teachers make it explicit to children that they are learning geography skills and that they are being ‘Geographers’. Wherever possible, we aim to build upon the child’s ‘Personal Geography’ by developing geographical skills, understanding and knowledge through studying places and themes.

At Samlesbury, we teach Geography to inspire our pupils to have a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people.  Geography builds a knowledge of the diverse places, people and resources providing children with a greater understanding of the world in which they live and which God created. We value learning about local geography and comparing this to other places in the UK and around the world. We want the children to understand Samlesbury, their home, and how they can protect, preserve and develop their immediate surroundings for future generations as those who are custodians of God’s creation. As Geographers at Samlesbury, we want our children to be able to think for ourselves and take the initiative to ask questions, carry out our own investigations and work constructively with others.

Our curriculum is based on the acquisition of knowledge, skills and vocabulary with a focus on children knowing more and remembering more. With clear progression across year groups, as demonstrated in the progression model, this allows children to revisit and recap prior learning in order to embed skills and knowledge. This allows children by the end of year 6 to have the cultural capital and enrichment opportunities to be successful in Geography in secondary school. Parents said that they wanted our children to leave Samelsbury understanding our local geography and how our area is unique; understanding our ‘island’ (the UK) int the wider world and having wider experiences of countries distant to ours as well as having the skills and knowledge to understanding global warming both locally and nationally. Our curriculum has themes planned in to address these issues relevant and important to our community and children.

Our Christian Values and Distinctiveness, alongside our School Mission Statement of ‘Learning, Growing and Inspiring through God’s Love and Grace’, are at the heart of our curriculum and all that we do at Samlesbury.

Implementation

At Samlesbury Church of England Primary School, evidence of the children’s learning can be found in their Geography books in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Topic books enable the children to make cross curricular links more easily rather than having single subject books. The subject leaders conducts pupil discussion groups and interviews with the children to discuss their learning and establish the impact. 

The progression of skills is split into four areas: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork  -these are then developed via more specific strands within the units taught as they progress through school. These are: geographical enquiry; direction/location, drawing maps, map knowledge and using maps; representation, scale/distance, perspective and human and physical features.

Each classroom will feature a display linked to the topic they are studying which will feature a range of key vocabulary that the children can refer to. The teacher adds to this each lesson from vocabulary gathered through lesson content or children’s own learning.

The children’s knowledge and understanding are assessed against the 2014 National Curriculum statements for Geography. This is both ongoing, to inform future planning, and summative to share with staff, leaders and parents. This ensures the pitch of lessons is well matched to need and that, by the end of each key stage, required content within the National Curriculum is adequately covered to prepare pupils for the next phase.

Impact

The quality of work in children’s books demonstrates appropriate pitch and challenge. It is evident that children’s knowledge is increasing compared to previous years. Children are now able to apply the knowledge and beginning to think like ‘geographers.’

Through pupil voice, it is evident that children are beginning to know more and remember more. They are able to articulate key vocabulary appropriately.

Please CLICK HERE for our Progression in Geography document

Please CLICK HERE for Geography Curriculum Overview

Please CLICK HERE for Key Vocabulary KS1

Please CLICK HERE for Key Vocabulary Lower KS2

Please CLICK HERE for Key Vocabulary Upper KS2