Geography
Intent
At Park Road, we believe that Geography is an integral part of the curriculum, providing children with the opportunity to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. We aim to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We strive to promote children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Our inclusive and engaging curriculum allows children to explore, question and discover. We aim to inspire a love of Geography that will instil an understanding of and respect for the diverse world in which we live. This is enhanced through the diverse range of Geographers we introduce the children to. It is important to us that throughout our Curriculum, children develop and take pride in their identity, so we encourage children to not only consider where places are in relation to the UK, but to Pakistan, Romania and Spain, to name a few.
We carefully consider the journey pupils take through school, building upon children’s understanding of a range of concepts and ideas. Our journey starts in the Early Years, where children develop their readiness for what they will go on to learn. Children in EYFS begin to develop their sense of identity and understanding of the world; they explore maps and locate countries that are special to them, go on local walks and explore our town, observing the changing seasons. As pupils enter KS1, they further develop their understanding of our school and local area. Children create their own maps of Batley, mapping how the land is used and making cross-curricular links through considering the history of buildings. In projects such as ‘The Spring Garden’ (KS1), ‘Blue Planet’ (LKS2) and ‘What a Wonderful World’ (UKS2), children consider the impact humans can have on our environment and seek to actively improve the world in which we live, campaigning about Global Warming and regenerating areas of our playground.
Progression of knowledge, skills and understanding can be found here:
Geography Early Years & KS1 Knowledge Skills and Understanding
Geography KS2 Knowledge Skills and Understanding
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a progressive and immersive curriculum throughout school. Staff take part in regular CPD in order to share and promote best practice.
Park Road Geography provides:
- Knowledge Organisers, which include key knowledge and vocabulary.
- First-hand experiences to engage children and aid knowledge retention.
- Opportunities to develop oracy skills.
- Collaborative activities, which allow children to develop relationships and learn from one another.
- Exposure to a diverse range of Geographers.
- Retrieval Practice opportunities to embed previously taught knowledge into long-term memory.
- Trips and visitors to develop children’s Cultural Capital e.g. a visit from a local coal miner.
- Opportunities to explore their local environment.
- Inclusive opportunities for children to showcase their learning in a variety of ways.
- Rich learning environments to raise the profile of Geography and enrich learning, including: maps in the hall, scratch maps and globes.
- Ongoing CPD to develop Teacher’s subject knowledge.
To assess the progress of our Geographers, we:
- Capture Pupil Voice.
- Incorporate low-stakes quizzes throughout our curriculum.
- Create end of unit quizzes based on our Knowledge Organisers.
Impact
As a result of the above, children:
- Understand their place in the world:
“I come from Nigeria” (Hadassah, Nursery)
“I come from Pakistan” (Mutassim, Nursery)
“Romania is special to me because my family live there and I like to visit them” (Nicoletta, Year 3)
“There is Spain! I was born there; it’s beautiful” (Eshaal, Year 5)
- Develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people:
“Who is the founder of Pakistan?” (Amna, Year 5)
- Understand what Geography is and why it is important:
“Geography is about the world. There is physical geography, like mountains and lakes, and human geography” (Saadia, Year 6)
- Know more, remember more and understand more about Geography.
- Understand how Geographers undertake fieldwork, developing skills in observing, measuring and recording.
Each term, we invite you to join out Curriculum Celebration afternoons, where you can see the fantastic work our children produce for yourselves!