Geography
Geography at South Wootton Junior School
Intent
At South Wootton Junior School, our geography curriculum equips pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people and environments. Arming children with powerful knowledge about the world around them helps them to develop a love for geography and recognise their own role in becoming a responsible global citizen.
Geography is taught through a knowledge rich curriculum where children will gain knowledge that has been carefully specified, ordered coherently and is built on over time.
The geography curriculum is designed to develop geographical literacy as well as transferable skills that can be used in their next stage of education and beyond.
Implementation
At South Wootton, each year group with complete three six-week units over the course of the year.
Geography is planned with the aid of Primary Knowledge Curriculum which ensures full coverage of The National Curriculum Programme of Study for Key Stage 2. Primary Knowledge Curriculum approaches geography with a knowledge rich focus meaning that the knowledge children will be taught has been identified in each year group, unit and lesson. The rigorous approach, covering and going beyond requirements of the Nation Curriculum, builds on the children’s geographical knowledge and understanding in a way that adds to their prior learning. This allows them to make meaningful connections and gain an understanding of how out world is connected.
Each lesson includes prior learning, explicit teaching of vocabulary, new knowledge, independent learning and challenge. Teachers subject knowledge allows them to describe and explain so that the children understand the new learning. Key vocabulary provides teachers with an opportunity to teach, model and revisit the vocabulary throughout the series of lessons as well as progressively throughout the year groups.
Each year our geography curriculum begins with a ‘spatial sense’ unit that explicitly teaches geographical skills. This unit is positioned at the start of the year to clearly teach skills which will then be used in context throughout the rest of the year and build on in the following years.
Every year, children will study British geography and take part in practical field work which is built incrementally from year to year.
Impact
Geography is informally assessed during each lesson to ensure misconceptions are addressed as they rise and to make sure that any resources are used correctly to enable geographical data to be collected and used to answer questions children may have about the world.
At the end of a module, children complete informal assessments through multiple-choice quizzes, completing blanked out knowledge organisers, labelling and drawing maps and diagrams and complete extended writing tasks. This allows teachers to assess what knowledge has been learnt and retained as they progress through the school. School trips, residentials and an opportunity for fieldwork each year provides further relevant and contextual learning.