Geography

Geography at Grangetown ignites the children's interest in and curiosity about the world around them. Our children use geographical vocabulary, tools and maps to identify and describe natural and human-created systems or features. They engage in fieldwork to observe, explore, measure and record features in the landscape, and to consider how humans interact with the world around them. Our school site provides the basis for much hands-on learning about geography. The children also learn about their own locality here in Sunderland and the North East, through visits which contribute to activities in the classroom. They also explore the wider world - nationally and internationally - to deepen their knowledge, expand their skills, and allow them to make comparisons between places and people locally, nationally and globally.

Intent, Implementation, Impact

Intent

At Grangetown Primary School, our curriculum will inspire the children to have a lifelong curiosity and fascination about the world around them and its people. As a school, we aim to equip the children with knowledge about a range of places, people, and physical and human environments around the world. The knowledge and skills the children will learn from our creative and well sequenced curriculum will allow them to fully develop their understanding of the link between physical and human processes and how environments and landscapes are formed. The children of Grangetown will have a secure understanding of the uses of physical and human features which will provide them with the knowledge and skills their need for the future. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that it builds on the knowledge and skills that the children have been previously taught, with clear expectations of what we wish the children to know about the geography curriculum and the world around them.

Implementation

Our Geography curriculum follows progressive units of work that build upon knowledge and skills from previous year groups and leads into their future learning. The curriculum has clear objectives, expectations and skills that we wish the children to know and understand alongside key vocabulary that we want the children to use in their Geography lessons. This enables children to understand the key concepts, so that they become embedded into their long-term memory. For each year group (Years 1-6), we have identified the knowledge we want the children to have and considered the skills that are best suited to each area.

Teachers have the autonomy to decide when within each term they teach their unit of geography that is reflected on the medium term plan. Teachers follow the medium term planning document for geography and use the objectives given to plan exciting and engaging lessons. Each medium term plan details opportunities for cross-curricular links and hooks for engagement and enrichment.

We also extend the children’s understanding of the Geography curriculum through well-planned field-trips and visitors to the school. These provide children with a context for learning and children develop their field-work skills more closely.

Geography work is recorded within the children’s humanities books, but links can be found in their English books and in art/DT books. Also, children’s work can be celebrated on geography displays both in classrooms and around school.

Impact

Through the exciting, engaging and well-structured lessons, our children develop a lifelong curiosity and interest in the world around them and enjoy sharing their knowledge both in class and often as a home-based project. The work in humanities books evidence the understanding the children have of the geography curriculum and how they use the knowledge and skills to further their learning. The children enjoy and understand the links made with other subjects.

At school we measure the impact of geography through the children’s ability to demonstrate their skills; through talking to the children about their geography lessons and topics; observations of lessons and monitoring of curriculum books by the geography subject leader.

Our Policy for Geography

Our Policy for Geography is here.

Geography Curriculum Map

Our Geography Subject Map provides an overview across EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

Long Term Planning

Our Long Term planning for Geography is here.

Grangetown Primary

Geography

Intent, Implementation, Impact

Our Policy for Geography

Geography Curriculum Map

Long Term Planning

Medium Term Planning

Geography in Action - Case Studies