Geography at Park

At Park, we have designed our geography curriculum to:

• Meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and Early Years Framework

• Be rich in knowledge that is meaningfully connected to what children already know

• Build a strong understanding of big ideas such as locational knowledge and conservation over their time at Park

• Develop empathetic citizens of now and the future, equipped and empowered to make a difference in an ever-changing world

• Build a strong sense of place for the areas studied

To achieve these aims, our subject leader has planned what will be taught in each year group and set this out in a long-term plan.   Rather than planning by half term (that can vary in length and can be too short to gain the depth of understanding we want for children at Park), we teach the geography content within 3 ten-week themes.  These themes include history, geography, art and DT with each subject taught discretely and has their own their own enquiry question. Our themes seek to make meaningful links between subjects that will deepen your child’s understanding further, whilst valuing each distinct subject in it’s own right  Our geography long-term plan at Park is below.

Our geography subject leader has carefully selected the key geographical concepts that we develop through your child’s history curriculum. These concepts are:

• Locational Knowledge (UK, wider world and making maps)

• Place Knowledge, including cultural awareness and diversity (UK and wider world)

• Navigation (reading maps, types of maps)

• FIeldwork

• Human Geography

• Physical Features and Processes (weather & climate, rivers and mountains, volcanoes & earthquakes)

• Environmental Impact and Sustainable Development

Units of work have been selected to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and to progressively return to these ideas, broadening and deepening children’s understanding each time.  This is mapped out in documents like that found below.

Our geography subject leader sets out the specific knowledge and vocabulary to be learned and the sequence of learning in our medium-term plans.  These are flexible to meet the needs of your children: the light blue steps are core content that are needed to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum and create progression in our key concepts; the dark blue is additional depth and breadth for those that are ready for it.  All children are taught the core content.  Some children may need longer to master this and will have additional time to focus on this.  For those that are ready for it, teachers plan to move on to the depth and breadth steps.  An example of our medium-term planning is shown below.

Your child’s class teacher plans the geography lessons from this document, considering how the lesson can be adapted for individual pupil needs so that all children are able to access the same content.  We teach our lessons in interactive ways, using story as a method in teaching as this has been shown to be a powerful way to help your child remember and make meaning of what they have learned.  You may have heard them talk about ‘Let’s Say…’ activities where staff members will act in role as a person from the place they are studying, to engage with their story, explore different viewpoints and empathise with them.  We also make use of educational visits to enhance children’s understanding and develop their cultural capital.

To be sure that our curriculum is working for your child, we regularly check whether they have gained the knowledge set out in our history curriculum.  Within lessons, we set up short activities to check what they have understood and remembered.  Where children show they have not understood or remembered some key learning, we will make adaptations for them within the lesson and change our planning for future lessons to address this and help them remember more.

At the end of the unit, we check whether children have remembered all of the key learning for the unit.  We make a summary judgement as to whether they have met Park’s expectations and learned what we expect them to.  We will inform you of your child’s geography attainment in their end of year report as well as regular chances to see what they have learned in school throughout the year in our end of theme celebrations.  We will also let their next teacher know, so that they can plan to meet your child’s needs in the next class.

Our geography subject leader and senior leadership team regularly review the assessments made in geography, look at your child’s books and visit their lessons and end of theme celebrations to check whether our curriculum is working to help your child master key geography understanding.  We use this to reflect on what has been taught, how it has been taught and make further improvements to our curriculum.