Geography
Intent
At South Wootton Infant School, we believe that every child is entitled to a high-quality geography education and it is our intent to provide this. Our pupils will develop their locational and place knowledge of villages, towns, cities, islands and countries in the UK and the wider world. They will learn about human and physical geography and will be able to compare the similarities and differences between places based on their observations of these. They will be able to do this using geographical skills which they will be taught and through fieldwork activities which they will take part in.
Implementation
· Geography is taught as part of termly topics and is planned using the geography progression grid in order to check for coverage.
· Geographical experiences and lessons are delivered to the children as a whole class and sometimes as a whole year group.
· In Reception teachers use ‘Knowledge and Understanding’ when planning and delivering the geography curriculum. This is delivered through a group activity especially when the children are exposed to a new resource, skill or experience. During ‘Exploration Time’ children are able to access resources independently in order to experience them and learn from them through first hand contact.
· Skills are taught and knowledge is developed and learnt either in whole class or smaller groups or through independent activities and tasks.
· All year groups use Tapestry to share learning experiences with the parents where appropriate.
· Where work is recorded it is done so in the children’s individual topic books or on display in the classroom or year group corridors.
Impact
· The knowledge and understanding that the children gain will be evident in the work in their topic books and on geography based displays. Their pupil voice can be expressed in their work, in displays and in the lessons where they are encouraged to ask questions and discuss what they have learnt further.
· There will be a clear progression of skills through the year groups and these will be reflected in the planned lessons and the recorded outcomes.
· Pupils understanding and experiences of geography should be memorable and something that when asked about they are able to recall in some detail.
If you were to walk into a geography lesson at SWIS you would see:
1. Children who are curious about their local area and the wider world.
2. Children who show resourcefulness and creativity when creating maps and plans with symbols and keys.
3. Children who are reflective when considering the similarities and differences between a range of environments and their features.
4. Children who show resilience when learning the location and names of capital cities, countries, continents and oceans.
5. Children who show collaboration when sharing their knowledge of different places and their views of the world, near and far.
How equality, diversity and citizenship is embedded in Geography teaching and learning
We help the children to develop their knowledge and understanding of different countries and cultures, so that they learn to avoid stereotyping, and acquire an awareness and acceptance of the differences between the way people live their lives in the UK and in other parts of the world. We celebrate the diversity of different cultures across the World and enjoy the experiences learning about them brings. We encourage the children to reflect on the impact of mankind on our world. Through teaching about contrasting localities, we enable the children to learn about possible inequalities in the world and encourage them to reflect on how they are more fortunate than some people. Work on changing landscapes and environmental issues leads children to ask questions about the evolution of the planet. This allows them to take some responsibility for the future of the planet as a World Citizen and for the protection of our country as a British Citizen.
Pupil Voice
The pupils in Reception talked quite animatedly about places they knew, a lot of these were where they had been on holiday. It was lovely to hear. A group of boys in Reception have become fascinated with maps and have been using our school atlases and maps of South Wootton to find out more about maps, our local area and the wider world
The Year One children have good recall of the countries of the UK and their capital cities. They love the continents song so have begun to learn them which is a good foundation for their work on these in Year Two. “The four parts of the UK are Wales, Northern Island, Scotland and England and England is the biggest part.” (Year One)
When asked what they like about geography and what is memorable about their geography lessons the children in Year Two all spoke a lot about learning about the Rainforest. They were very proud of the geography work in their books and talked animatedly about it. “Geography is where you look all around the world.” (Year Two)