Mrs Macdonald leads Geography throughout school.

My degree is in Geography and I spent several years teaching it at high school, which I loved! Geography is all about understanding 'why' we are; it's a huge investigation into our world and is so fascinating.

Mrs MacDonald

Geography Curriculum

Geography is delivered with the locality of Euxton at the heart of the tailored curriculum.  The strands of Geography gradually build over the course of the curriculum.  The curriculum is ambitious and evolves to address the current climate, with an expectation that case studies can be fluid and adaptable.  This enhances the children’s understanding of current affairs and creates opportunities for open debate.  From EYFS to Year 6 children are encouraged to question and enquire about their own geography, therefore creating a relevant and engaging curriculum which is specific to our school.  This strong sense of place provides the skills to enquire about other localities around the globe.  It develops a sense of stewardship for the world as well as respect and tolerance of other cultures.  The curriculum is delivered discretely, with a vision of geography being a ‘science of the world.’   This allows us to objectively explore and compare places around the world using a wide range of data including maps, graphs, infographics and photographs.

Children are taught from the earliest point to acquire fieldwork skills and to look at their environment in an objective as well as empathetic way.  Weaved into the curriculum are opportunities to appreciate different cultures, deepening the children’s understanding of the world.  We seek to be diverse and objective in our exploration of the world.  For example, we objectively look at reasons for and against settling in a location; this is enhanced by our history learning which consistently explores the movement of people around the world.  This can then be enriched by our studies of other religions and visits to different places of worship.  Children are encouraged to observe physical and human patterns throughout time, drawing close links with people and their physical environment.  This enables them to build an understanding of patterns of democracy and respect in both ours and other countries.  They have an appreciation of how the opportunities within our environment influence our life and are encouraged to draw comparisons with those of other geographical areas.

Opportunities to make learning practical by working outside the classroom enhance our love and understanding of the world.  Children build confidence in using practical equipment and working upon various terrains and in different weathers.  They build resilience and work as a team. We make plentiful use of our local environment to make fieldwork observations.  We carry out local trips often and across all year groups.  EYFS tour the school grounds and their local area; Year 3 visit our woods; Year 5 go to Blackpool and Year 6 visit Buckshaw Village and also complete a River study.  We use our local geography to build our understanding of the world around us.

Knowledge

 The main areas of geography are:

·       Locational knowledge;

·       Place Knowledge;

·       Human and physical geography;

·       Geographical skills and fieldwork.

Substantive and disciplinary knowledge required for each unit of work has been identified with a Key Knowledge document.  This informs curriculum planning as well as assessment.  Substantive knowledge lays the foundations for growth of understanding through the subject, through the acquisition of key knowledge.  This is supported by the development of disciplinary knowledge where ‘being’ a geographer is integral to learning.  These key skills include field work; data analysis; observations and discussion.  The geography curriculum is designed to incorporate a good distribution of both types of knowledge throughout school.  To further ensure coverage of the National Curriculum and to ensure we are delivering the best possible geography, a National Curriculum audit is consulted.  This is especially useful as we are fluid and creative in the use of our case studies and this audit anchors our learning objectives.

Locational knowledge is steadily acquired.  In Year 1 children learn the continents and oceans and in Year 2 they zoom into the United Kingdom.  Throughout Key Stage 2, children expand their locational knowledge of Europe, together with key features.  The continent is zoned into European regions which largely connect to the case studies which will be learnt during that year.  This allows children to gradually acquire knowledge and understanding in a meaningful and relevant way.  We teach a wide variety of case studies, spanning North and South America as well as Europe.  The children visit maps with great regularity, constantly building upon their locational knowledge.  Regular retrieval is integral to creating automaticity in locational knowledge and so this is practised regularly.

Place knowledge, together with human and physical geography, is taught with the use of exciting and relevant case studies.  Maps, graphs and photographs are integral to allowing children to use an inquiry approach to their learning.   From the very beginning of their geography journey, the children are aware that our physical and human world is interconnected.  They explore the physical mechanisms of a system and then consider the connection and impact of humans.  This allows the children to deepen their understanding and appreciation of other cultures as well as challenge their own actions.

Geographical skills and fieldwork are embedded throughout the curriculum.  Fieldwork opportunities are sought from an early age, allowing children to develop a bank of skills which enables more sophisticated fieldwork studies as they progress through school. 

Key knowledge and understanding is re-visited consistently throughout the key stages.  At the beginning of each new unit, children work through a document which activates their prior knowledge.  This is commonly a series of pictures of diagrams which connects their prior learning.  With each new learning opportunity, children build upon their prior knowledge.  As the curriculum progresses, the case studies become more complex.  Children are able to synthesise their knowledge and skills.  They also have the skills to create their own geographical inquiries.

Assessment

Progress is monitored both within and across sequences of lessons.Lessons are adapted to suit the needs of individuals and classes and assessment is used to inform future tweaks to lessons within a unit.Assessment is on-going, in the form of observations, questioning, discussion and written work.Children receive verbal and written feedback.Work can be both collaborative and independent.Children record their work in their topic books.This allows them to refer back to what they have learnt previously in the year, reinforcing their understanding.

There is a geography monitoring document which provides all staff with an overview of knowledge for each topic.Each topic has an individual set of substantive and disciplinary knowledge which will be covered during that unit.This provides a framework within which the teacher will assess each child’s understanding of each topic.They will be recorded as a brick wall statement and held in the Yellow Class Folder.At the end of each year, the class teacher will make a final judgement on each child and make a record on an end of year brick wall, which will be passed onto the next teacherThese judgements can inform future planning to address any gaps.In addition to this, all teachers complete a RAG rating of the key areas of geography at the end of each academic year.Children across the school are interviewed about their experience of geography and books are sampled over the year.All this information is used to address overall strengths and weaknesses and helps provide focus for targets for the subject in the following year.

Key Priority 1:

Create an Euxton model of assessment (5 checkpoints) which embeds retrieval practices and supports a robust monitoring and assessment cycle.

Research evidence: Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction.

Key Priority 2:

Place locational knowledge at the heart of all geography lessons, allowing children the time to embed their knowledge of key countries and landmarks.

Research evidence: Geographical Association

Key Priority 3:

Imrpove oracy in Geography through increased use of dialogic teaching.

Research evidence:  Geographical Association -dialogic teaching and discussion. The six principles of dialogic talk, Roberts (2023).

Enrichment opportunities:

EYFS-Seasonal Walks

Year 1-Giant Antarctica Map

Year 2-Tour of the UK day

Year 3-Rainforest Day & Volcano Day

Year 4-Earthquake Day & visit to Ewood Park

Year 5-Blackpool Fieldwork

Year 6-Buckshaw Village Fieldwork

Enrichment examples across the year groups