Geography Statement 

INTENT  

• Our geography curriculum inspires a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. 

• Our geography curriculum equips children with an understanding of diverse places, people, resources and environments. 

• Our geography curriculum is broad and balanced.  It is taught as a discrete subject as we believe this approach immerses our children within geography, encourages them to use geographic vocabulary and begin to explore and analyse the world as a geographer. 

• Where meaningful, our geography curriculum has links with other subjects so that our children broaden their understanding and apply their learning to different contexts (for example, in the Year Six unit of work on mountains, links are made with English and history when the children write a newspaper report about the historical figures of Malory and Irvine). 

• As children’s reading and writing skills are essential in becoming life-long learners, we incorporate purposeful reading within our geography curriculum.   

• Our geography curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced for all our children. 

• Our geography curriculum is ambitious for all our children, including those with SEND, enabling every child to work to their full potential. 

• In keeping with our Christian ethos, each geography unit of work is introduced through discussion and debate around ‘big questions’ that explore the awe and wonder of God’s world and our place within it (for example, when introduced to the unit of My Local Area, Year Three children discuss the question, ‘Why does God want us to live at peace with everyone?’ 

IMPLEMENTATION  

• Our geography curriculum is purposeful and engaging (for example, in learning about the rainforest our Year Four children write to local supermarkets questioning them about stocking palm oil products) 

• The key concepts within our geography lessons are regularly revisited through our spiral curriculum, this enables our children to know more and remember more about geography. 

• Children access their geography lessons through high quality teaching during which they participate in a wide range of engaging learning experiences such as independent research, debate, written tasks, creative tasks, mapwork and field work. 

• There is a stong focus on children using geographical vocabulary in written tasks, debate and discussion activities and in their oral contributions during lessons. 

• All geography lessons build upon prior learning and have clearly defined end points.    

• In geography lessons, teachers check pupils’ understanding effectively, identifying and correcting misunderstandings.  

• As part of our geography curriculum, enrichment activities such as local field trips are included wherever possible (for example, our Year Five children undertake a visit to Eastbrookend Country Park as part of their study of rivers). 

IMPACT 

• We evaluate the knowledge, skills and understanding that children have gained in their geography lessons against carefully planned end points to measure progression. 

• Our geography curriculum ensures children have the knowledge and cultural capital to succeed in the next steps of their education. 

• In the monitoring of the geography curriculum, we constantly strive for improvement through review and evaluation.