Geography

Geography at Mobberley CE Primary School

Intent

Our Geography curriculum aims to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We want to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, and a variety of environments, together with an understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We will teach children how to collect, analyse and communicate a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork, helping them to make sense of their own locality and place in the world.

Aims

We believe that Geography helps our children to make sense of the fast changing world that we live in. We aim to teach them a sense of place, belonging, identity, purpose, as well as awe and wonder. Our Geography curriculum allows children to investigate people and places and the interactions between the two, as well as physical and human processes that shape our world.

Objectives

Through high quality teaching, children will build their knowledge and skills year on year, focusing on the following Geographical characteristics:

  • Globally significant places
  • Define physical and human characteristics
  • Spatial variation and change over time
  • Collect, analyse and communicate data
  • Gather evidence through fieldwork
  • Interpret and communicate geographical information
  • Locational knowledge – villages, towns, countries, continents and oceans
  • Map skills
  • Similarities and differences between the UK and elsewhere
  • Physical and human features

Implementation

Our Geography curriculum is taught in blocks throughout the year so that children can achieve depth in their learning. Children receive one discrete afternoon of Geography per week, building on from the previous week’s learning. Key skills and knowledge have been identified for each year group to ensure progression throughout the school. At the beginning of each Geography topic, children complete a pre-assessment task which informs the programme of study and ensures that lessons are relevant and take account of children’s different starting points. Lessons are practical, relevant and personalised to make it exciting and engaging for the children. They are given opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills through open-ended questions and problem solving. All learning styles are catered for as teachers ensure they plan auditory, visual and kinaesthetic activities. Children develop their independence and confidence through individual activities and their co-operative skills during pair and group work. Consideration is given to how greater depth will be taught, learnt and demonstrated within each lesson, as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion.

Impact

As children progress throughout the school, they develop a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. Outcomes in Geography and English books evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Pre and Post-Assessments allow the children to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding and let children answer open-ended questions that were posed at the beginning of the unit of work. Geographical understanding, as well as the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is further supported by our links with an international partner school.

SMSC

Through Geography teaching, our children develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

The spiritual development of pupils is shown by their sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them as well as their willingness to reflect on their experiences.

The moral development of pupils is shown by their understanding of the consequences of their behaviour and actions and interest in investigating and offering reasoned views about moral and ethical issues, and being able to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others on these issues.

The social development of pupils is shown by their willingness to participate in a variety of communities and social settings, including cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively.

The cultural development of pupils is shown by their understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of others. This is in addition to their interest in exploring, improving understanding of and showing respect for cultural diversity, and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity, as shown by their tolerance and attitudes towards different ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities.

Please click here to view our skills and knowledge progression.

Please click below to view our Geography policy.

Pupil Voice

Please click here to read more about what our children say about Geography at Mobberley.