Geography Curriculum

Year Group	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
1	Journeys	Toys	Fairy-Tales	Amazing Animals	Wonderful World	The Seaside
2	Pride in Place	Where do the Bong trees grow?	Party Planners	What makes us like other animals?	Field to Fork	Australian Adventure
3	Super Forces	Awesome Egyptians	Mirror Mirror	Stone Age to Bronze Age	Land of Hope and Glory	Food Glorious Food
4	Chocolate	Bright Sparks	Romans	Dazzling Digestion	Eurovision	Classifying Critters
5	Mysterious Materials	Conflict WW1 and WW2	The Lost Thing	Beowulf	Our Green Planet	Out of this world
6	Evolution and Inheritance Science	Ancient Greece	Peterborough Now and Then	Staying Alive	Amazing Americas	Showtime
Geography CQ Statements covered as focus subject Geography CQ Statements covered incidentally

Intent:
 

Geography is a subject which goes beyond the national curriculum and is fundamentally about understanding the world we live in. It is a constantly changing discipline that focuses on locational knowledge, natural and human environments, world resources and processes as well as diverse places, people and cultures within it.
At Oakdale we inspire to teach children to become curious investigators and critical enquirers about their locality and the wider-world.  We aim to teach children to be passionate and informed life-long learners who gain skills transferable to other subjects and disciplines in life; who want to learn and care about their world and their place within it.
 

Implementation:
 

Our whole curriculum is shaped firstly by our school vision: ‘A caring family of happy learners’ and secondly by our geography vision; ‘To inspire children to be active, critical thinkers who understand and respect the complexity and diversity within our world and positively engage in shaping it for the future’. As well as our chosen ‘The BIG IDEAS’- Environmental Impact, Cultural Awareness, Environment and Interconnections.
 

We teach the National Curriculum, through the Chris Quigley Milestones used for learning objectives and progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. This also supported by staff-created knowledge organisers that match the Chris Quigley Milestones. These organisers clearly state, explain and build on previously learnt skills, topics and vocabulary for all areas including: map-making and fieldwork.
 

When planning the knowledge organisers are utilised to inform teaching and existing knowledge is checked at the start of each new topic. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children's starting points and take into account pupil’s prior knowledge. Lesson content and tasks are designed to provide maximum interest and creativity along with appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with our commitment to inclusion and inspiration.

It is important that children develop the skills of a geographer by fully immersing them in all areas of the subject including critical thinking, fieldwork and knowledge.
Our local area of Stanground is utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world beyond their locality.

Impact:

By the time pupils leave Oakdale they will:

• Have an excellent knowledge of where places studied are on the globe and what they are like.
• Have a great understanding of the ways in which places can be interdependent, interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated and rely upon each other.
• Have an extensive base of geographical vocabulary they can use correctly.
• Be confident and curious in critical-thinking skills and geographical enquiry.
• Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop reasoned arguments to explain findings.
• Have well developed fieldwork skills in both record collection, analysis and presentation.
• Have a passion for and commitment to the subject and the world around them, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world, its diversity and the people who live there.
• Have the ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in good knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.
• Be citizens of the world who want to have a positive impact in shaping it for the future.

Assessment:

Every pupil’s geography knowledge, skills and understanding is assessed at the end of every topic of learning with a ‘POP Task’ (Proof Of Progress). These are tasks which, dependent on age, are open-ended and focus on demonstrating learning through creativity and enquiry independently. Class teachers ensure that the tasks are accessible to all abilities and level of literacy by making these tasks less focused on written and reading successes but by children showing their understanding in a variety of ways including but not limited to: drawing, diagram, labels, glossaries, PowerPoints, posters, leaflets, narrative-writing, map-making, questionnaires, quizzes, interviews/ comments etc

These tasks may be single lessons or take place over a whole day/ week depending on the coverage and age-group of the children. The assessments are then marked by the teachers against the Chris Quigley Milestones and noted into the classes’ Assessment Folder as ‘Emerging’, ‘Expected’ or ‘Exceeding’. At the end of the year, every pupil is given a grading of either: ‘Emerging’, ‘Expected’ or ‘Exceeding’ depending on the majority of statements they have demonstrated in these assessment tasks. This grading is then provided in their end of year report.

Useful Websites:

For pupils:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zcdqxnb KS1
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zbkw2hv  KS2
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/
https://world-geography-games.com/world.html

For parents:
https://geography.org.uk/ Geographical Association
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-geography Ofsted review of Geogrpahy in schools and recommendations 2021