Geography
Intent, Implementation and Impact of our Geography Curriculum
Geography Subject Leader- Catherine Naylor
Intent
Geography at St Joseph’s aims to inspire; giving pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them forever. We aim to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Alongside this knowledge and understanding, children will develop geographical skills; collecting and analysing data and using globes, maps, photos and digital mapping tools. Critical thinking will be encouraged when considering local and global geographical issues. Children will know and use subject specific vocabulary and will communicate their knowledge in a variety of ways. Practical research and enquiry are key aspects of Geography teaching and every child will take part in fieldwork every year.
Implementation
At St Joseph’s we use National Curriculum objectives as the starting point for our Geography planning and then use Lancashire’s ‘Key Learning in Geography’ documents to create the curriculum planning document for our school- ensuring coverage of knowledge and progression in skills across our 5 classes. We map Geography topics across 2 years to account for our mixed-age classes. We use units of work from ‘Plan Bee’ to assist with planning and enhance delivery for many of our Geography topics. In addition, we take into account the local circumstances of our school and the knowledge and interests of staff when choosing localities to study.
Each class undertakes fieldwork during the summer term. A separate document, ‘Progression in Mapping’ produced by the Geographical Association, is used when planning our fieldwork. Class teachers work with the subject leader when planning fieldwork to ensure quality provision and progression of skills throughout the school.
Impact
We expect that, by the end of Year 6, our pupils will have the skills and knowledge they will need to access the KS3 Geography curriculum. They will have sense of curiosity about the world and a mental ‘bucket-list’ of places in the world they would like to find out more about or visit in the future. Our pupils will have an awareness of and an interest in the world around them and be able to think critically about real life local and global issues.
