St John Southworth RC Primary School

Geography at Saint John Southworth RC Primary School

At SJS Geography is ...the world around us and it's physical and human features.

Intent, implementation and impact of our Geography Curriculum

Our Geography Lead is Dee Whittaker

 At Saint John Southworth RC Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and answer questions about the natural and human worlds, encouraging children to develop a greater understanding of their world and their place in it. Our intent within Geography is for the curriculum to promote curiosity about the world for our children. We aim to equip all children with the skills to ‘think like a geographer’.

 Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Geography by:

• Ensuring the progressive development of Geographical concepts, knowledge and skills
• Provide a geographically curious environment to allow children to develop a love for Geography

 Intent

 We aim for a high-quality Geography curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Our teaching equips pupils with knowledge about places and people; resources in the environment; physical and human processes; formation and use of landscapes. Alongside this key knowledge, we also want children to develop geographical skills: collecting and analysing data; using maps, globes, aerial photographs and digital mapping to name and identify countries, continents and oceans; and communicating information in a variety of ways. We want children to enjoy and love learning about Geography by gaining this knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits. As Geography develops within our school, we aim for Geography to take place both inside and outside of the classroom.

Implementation

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a bespoke curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Geography is taught as part of a half-termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Saint John Southworth, we ensure that Geography has the same importance given to it as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences. For example, using small world figures to create maps in Key Stage 1, exploring the key geographical features of the local area in Lower Key Stage 2, through to an in-depth study of a tropical rainforest and other biomes in Upper Key Stage 2. Trips and visiting experts are carefully planned in to further develop our children as geographers.

Impact

We aim to ensure that children at our school are equipped with geographical knowledge and skills that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world. We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Geography, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future. Our Geography curriculum aims to create Geographers of the future who will bring about change in the wider world. Our children will have the knowledge and skills to make a change in the wider world through the exploration of real life debates and issues.