Intent

Stratton Primary School aims to deliver a rich and purposeful geography curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Our intention is to develop pupils’ interest in diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. They will develop skills to think like a geographer.

In KS1, pupils will develop their knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality.

In KS2, they will extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America.

All children will be taught basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational and place awareness and knowledge.

Implementation

The Stratton Curriculum is underpinned by the 2014 National Curriculum.  Teachers’ planning is supported by the geography progression of skills document and curriculum map.  To support planning, teachers will use medium-term plans created by the subject lead. Geography is delivered in a way that is sequenced towards cumulative knowledge and skills, building on prior learning.

Geography sometimes drives a topic in a classroom, or is taught discretely. Teachers should aim to deliver a geography lesson weekly when it is part of their topic.

During each learning sequence, teachers will look for opportunities to link topics to other areas of the curriculum. Progression in children’s learning across the school will be in line with the school’s progressions of skills in geography document. Learning activities will look at developing knowledge of human and physical geography and location and place knowledge. All pupils will have the opportunity to work individually, in groups and as a whole class. Teachers will therefore identify individual pupil needs and differentiate tasks and activites to facilitate this.

Learning will be recorded in a range of ways: by writing, photographs, tables, graphs and field books.

Fieldwork will be specifically taught in at least one topic in each year group. It will engage children with real-world learning, enable purposeful data collection, connect children to the local environment and promote curiosity, creativity and critical thinking. Children will be shown how to ask geographical questions, allowing pupils to investigate and gather information themselves to develop understanding.  Each child will have a fieldwork folder to store their field books in.

In KS1, knowledge organisers are developed by the class teacher and discussed with children as the topic moves on. In KS2, children will create knowledge organisers at the start of each topic and refer the these at the start of each lesson to review and add what they have learned.

Impact

Children at Stratton Primary School will become more aware of their place in the world and the impact they have on this planet.