Geography

Our Geography Subject Leadership is shared

Intent

The geography projects are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s geographical knowledge, skills and subject disciplines. Geographical locations are not specified in the national curriculum, so they have been chosen to provide a broad and diverse understanding of the world.

Where there are opportunities for making meaningful connections with other projects, geography projects are sequenced accordingly. For example, children revisit the geography of settlements in the history project School Days after studying types of settlements in the geography project Bright Lights, Big City.

All geography projects are taught in the autumn and spring terms, with opportunities for schools to revisit less secure concepts in the summer term.

Implementation

The geography curriculum is based on the Cornerstones Maestro curriculum and is adapted to ensure it is relevant to West Coker School’s context and the needs of the children within the classroom.

• The geography curriculum will include interesting and relevant case studies to be explored in detail which will support class topics.
• There will be a clear progression of both knowledge and skills as children work their way through the school, leading to fluency and geographical thinking, which can be applied to support understanding in a range of curriculum areas.
• Class teachers will ensure that there is regular monitoring of geography teaching and learning through pupil voice, observations and book looks, to check understanding and inform subsequent teaching.
• Class teachers will have an open dialogue to gain feedback and provide support.
• Assessment will be monitored to inform practice.
• Teachers will have secure subject knowledge, being able to clearly explain Earth’s key human and physical processes, in inspiring, engaging and carefully sequenced lessons.
• They will provide children with a range of materials and experiences that support the intent of the curriculum, preparing the pupils with sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning.
• Children will have the opportunity to discover more about the world and their local area, by investigating, exploring and discussing their ideas, which will contribute to their developing locational knowledge and sense of place.
• Children will be able to present their findings in a variety of ways, including drawings, graphs, debates and writing at length. 

Impact

Learners will deepen their locational and place knowledge, both globally and locally, through comparisons and case studies, to gain a wider knowledge of the world. Pupils will be able to identify and explain key human and physical processes, using appropriate vocabulary and will be able to discuss the impacts of their interactions and changes over time. Pupils will become competent in geographical skills through fieldwork opportunities and will be able to ask geographical questions, presenting their findings in a range of ways.