Our Curriculum
Geography - Explore - Enthuse - Excite
"Geography is really fun because you find out about new places in our world."
Aiden, Year 4
Intent
It is our aim to make Geography lessons at our school fascinating and fun. Geographical skills, vocabulary and knowledge are developed and built-upon throughout all phases, ensuring that our children not only master the content but can recall, use and apply this knowledge in other areas of the curriculum. We have designed our own long term topic plan, underpinned by the National Curriculum, which ensures children not only learn all of the required content but have the opportunity to revist and build upon what they have already learnt. Teachers use defined learning objectives for each unit of study which ensures this happens and also allows them to see what has been taught previously and how often. An example of this can be found below.
Implementation
We have a thematic approach to teaching the National Curriculum, therefore when Geography is taught, it is usually the predominant subject which all of the other subjects centre around. For example, in the Y4 topic ‘Mexico’ the children undertake a comparative study but they also study the culture of Mexico through Music, English and Art. They study ‘Day of the Dead’, writing poems and letters and also create wax resist pieces, depicting sugar skulls, in Art. They read traditional Mexican stories and write their own versions and make/taste Mexican food in DT. Similarly, in ‘Rainforests’ in Y5, the children study habitats in Science, they create pen drawings of rainforest birds (based on the work of Mark Powell) and all writing is linked to the rainforest which includes a fictional story based on a plane crash followed up with a survival guide!
Where possible, children are taken on field trips to bring their studies to life. To give depth and breadth to their studies, our curriculum is designed to ensure that children experience both human and physical geography within the locality and further afield.
Some of our field trips have included visits to the Lake District to uncover how economy, trade and land use varies from town to town, Castleton YHA to explore, first hand, the journey of a river, a visit to a dairy farm to understand more about land use, trade and settlements and then later in the year they used this knowledge as part of an in-depth local study, comparing rural life to life in Warrington and an overnight stay in London. Children have developed map skills by using our very own, on-site orienteering route and they have also used maps further afield in Warrington Town Centre, Sankey Valley Park and in Edale where they explored the local village. Seaside visits, a visit to the Blue John Mines and visits to the Formby RNLI were also great ways to enhance learning.
'What is our knowledge worth if we know nothing about the world that sustains us, nothing about natural systems and climate, nothing about other countries and cultures?' Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Future
Impact
We have an open-question approach to assessing the impact of our teaching and learning in Geography. At the end of each unit, children are required to recall and apply knowledge to answer a given question. Teachers then use this work, and the evidence from books and lessons, to form a judgement about whether a child is working at the required standard, below or above. An example of these standards can be found in the file below.
We also assess acquired knowledge by giving the children a knowledge based pre and post quiz. This information may feed into the teacher assessment too.
Conservation & the bigger picture
It can be difficult to find elements within the National Curriculum which focus predominantly on conservation and global issues such as recycling, clean energy, global warming and conservation. Being an ECO Green Flag School, we think that these areas are such an important part of our world that we have added them into our curriculum. Topics in EYFS, Key Stage 1 and 2 teach the knowledge and skills which deepen the children's understanding in this very important aspect of human and physical Geography.
You will find these in topics such as 'Wildlife Watch!' (Y2), Rainforest Adventure (Y5) and 'Beside the seaside' (Y5)
The boys from Emerald Class (Y4/5) showing off their art
made from recycled carrier bags, October 2023
Innocent Smoothie Meeting - part of the ‘River Monsters’ topic in Y6, January 2024
After looking at the impact of plastic pollution on our environment, we had a Q&A session with the head of sustainability at Innocent Smoothie.
We asked questions including:
·What changes did you make to packaging and why?
What kind of barriers did you face?
How do you feel about people littering your products?
What is the hardest part about designing plastic free packaging?
We learnt so much and now realise that it isn’t as easy to cut out plastic as we first thought!
Geography Bear
In 2018, Geography Bear joined our school - the first job was to give him a name. In a whole school vote, the children decided on ‘Atlas’ and since then he has been all over the uk on field trips, the theatre and even on residentials! The children help him to record his experiences in his travel journal which can be found close to the Geography display in school.
Atlas Bear on the London Eye
Keep your eye on this page for updates on his travels…
In Janury 2024, the children in Year 5 took Bear to the Robinwood Centre in Wales for their 2 night residential - he had lots of fun joining in with the activities and making new friends. You can read his travel journal in school to find out more about his adventures!
Here he is with Mrs Lawton on the zipwire!