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Geography

Saint Patrick's Catholic Primary School

‘We arise today, to learn, love and grow through Jesus.’

At Saint Patrick’s we aim to create an environment in which each individual has the opportunity to thrive supported by values of Christ firmly built into our everyday foundations. Education, welfare and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do. Above all else, we want to foster a strong belief in all our children that they can succeed in all they do, no matter what. Working with all school parties, we wish to nurture each child’s potential and foster high aspirations. It is essential that we give them the tool kit needed to achieve their goals regardless of background or starting points.

Intent

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Geography helps our pupils to learn about their surroundings and to gain an appreciation and understanding of how people live. At Saint Patrick’s, we are committed to developing children’s curiosity about local, national and international localities by broadening their knowledge of people, places and environments across the world.

Throughout EYFS, children draw on their knowledge from observation, stories, non-fiction texts and (when appropriate) maps. They develop their skills to describe their immediate environment and begin to explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries. By the end of EYFS, children should know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments. They develop their understanding of some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons.

In Key Stage One, children develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

In Key Stage Two, children extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They develop their use of geographical tools and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

Our curriculum aims to ensure that pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

The geography curriculum at Saint Patrick’s is organised into four topics per year group which are driven by our key concepts in geography: investigating places in our country, investigating places globally investigating patterns and communicating geographically. Our curriculum is designed with the aims of instilling a love for geography as well as developing knowledge of the world and their place within it. Our curriculum arranged so that pupils return to these same concepts repeatedly in within and across a wide breadth of topics, gradually building on their understanding of them. As such, we aim to ensure that we have developed contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places as well as deepen an understanding of the processes that give rise to key human and physical features and how they might change over time. Our long-term plan details how pupils will be given opportunities to relate topics to previously studied topics to deepen understanding.

Our curriculum is devised so that children are able to appreciate and understand how the world has evolved, explore the relationship between the world and its people, and through communicating geographically, gain a wider understanding of different places, cultures and traditions around the world. Each topic is carefully planned with the aim of ensuring that our children develop a sound understanding of the world in which we live. Within the four topics, each year group studies an element of local geography focusing on the National Curriculum strand of geographical skills and fieldwork as we are committed to providing our children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Wigan so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and how our area has changed over time. This runs as a single strand taught across school at the same time enabling knowledge, skills and resources to be shared and developed as well as monitoring and assessment of the subject to be undertaken. Our curriculum reflects the vast geographical changes that have shaped our local area both now and, in the past, within this topic children use maps and digital technologies to explore these changes overtime.

The curriculum learning experiences of our children are greatly enhanced by a variety of visitors and visits planned. We take full advantage of the geography on our door step with each year group exploring places of geographical interest within our local area from visits to local rivers and dams, to using Digi maps to explore their immediate surroundings and begin to develop map skills.

Implementation

Geography teaching focuses on enabling children to think as geographers and ignite children’s curiosity and fascination of the world and its people. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in Geography and we use a variety of teaching and learning styles throughout Geography lessons. We believe that children learn best when:

They have access to enquiry-based research activities.

They go on visits to sites of geographical significance and places of interest.

They have access to a variety of data such as maps, statistics, graphs, pictures and aerial photographs.

They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos.

They can use ICT in geography lessons where appropriate, including the production of digital maps. (use of Digi-Maps)

They are able to use non-fiction books for research.

They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer geographical questions.

They engage in a variety of problem-solving activities.

They are given time to reflect on their own learning by giving them opportunities to create visual prompts enabling them to recall how they learned about this place/environment, thus creating opportunities to identify links and relate places and environments to each other.

We recognise that we have children of differing abilities in Geography and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities by matching the challenge of the task to the child’s ability. We achieve this by:

Setting open-ended tasks which can have a variety of responses.
Grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each ability group.
Providing resources of different complexity depending on the ability of the child.
Using Teaching Assistants to support children individually or in groups.
Organising children in such a way that they receive support from their peers.

Impact

At Saint Patrick’s, we believe, the welcoming and respectful environment which is enriched in catholic morals and teachings, continues to enhance the educational and pastoral experience of every individual passing through our doors. Our teachings are underpinned by the ambition of ensuring that our children are able to reach their full potential and succeed as well-rounded individuals within the community. We recognise that each child is unique and as such are supported in reaching their full potential. The teaching and learning environment at Saint Patrick’s is underpinned by the foundation of our supportive ethos and varied approaches to learning, all of which contribute to developing the children as both collaborative and independent learners. The impact of our Geography curriculum is measured in the experiences, confidence and competence of our children within the subject. We ensure children receive the experiences they require, both within and beyond the curriculum, to develop their skills and knowledge and become confident geographers.

By revisiting geographical concepts, children will deepen their understanding and be able to identify links between their own immediate environments as well as places around the world and the interactions between the physical and human environment. Through the breadth and depth that our Geography curriculum offers, our children are provided with a broad knowledge of the world they live in, and understand, as responsible citizens how they need to care and preserver the planet for future generations. The progress children make in Geography throughout school is outstanding. Children typically enter school at below the expected level for ‘Understanding the World’, but the average percentage of children for the past 3 years achieving Secure or above, at the end of Year 6 is 89%.