Geography

Intent

At Eaton Valley Primary School, our Geography teaching aims to deliver a high-quality education where children are inspired and enthused to find out about the physical and human world. We feel it is important to nurture and encourage their natural curiosity, to shape and direct it to turn the children into inquisitive, questioning learners who look closely at the world around them and begin to be able to interpret what they see.

Through their growing knowledge and understanding of Geography, children will learn about places, people and the environment. By exploring their own locality and through studying others, they will learn how to draw and interpret maps and deepen their geographical skills through enquiry learning. It is important we instil in our children a sense of environmental responsibility and encourage them to understand environmental issues at a local and global level. Motivating and inspiring our children to find out about their world, both physical and human, so that they can take an active part in contributing to and protecting this world as they grow up.

Our intent is that all children develop:

An interest in their surroundings and in the variety of human and physical conditions on the Earth's surface.
A sense of wonder at the beauty of the world around them.
An informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat; and thereby enhance children's sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and its people.

Implementation

As part of our Geography curriculum, Eaton Valley will teach Geography across a wide range of cross curriculum links in a variety of ways to engage the learner. Whether this is mapping skills, in the form of a quiz, a retrieval reading comprehension, making a model volcanoes or river structure, all lessons will be different, visual and meet the needs of the children. Geography will be blocked into themes showing a clear progression across the school.

Lessons at Eaton Valley will have:

Progression, which develop a sense of awe, wonder and mystery.
Effective planning with clear learning outcomes, differentiated for all abilities of children.
An enquiry- based approach with clear learning outcomes, differentiated for all abilities of children.
Staff using the assessment for learning strategies to enable them to differentiate effectively.
Resources that are well prepared and appropriately matched to support the learners.
New Learning skills to be addressed and developed and success criteria will be shared with the children at the beginning and reviewed at the end of every lesson.
Opportunities to integrate the use of ICT effectively into their learning.
Opportunities for children to display and reflect upon their own work and the work of others.
Accurate and regular assessments of individual attainment, which are used to shape future learning.
An understanding of geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region or area in a European country.
The use of maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
Access to a wide range of geographical sources in order to investigate places and patterns.
The use of fieldwork to observe, measure and record the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs and digital technologies.
Encourage the children to ask, as well as to answer, Geographical questions.
Use the local environment and visits to enhance the teaching of Geography.

Impact

Overall, in Geography, Eaton Valley will give children the life skills they need as they go out into the world they have learnt about. These outcomes will be seen in a range of curriculum books, evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Children review their successes in achieving the lesson objectives at the end of every session. Children also record what they have learned comparative to their starting points at the end of every topic by using the unit’s knowledge organiser.

As children progress throughout the school, they develop a deep knowledge, understanding an appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. Regular school trips provide further relevant and contextual learning.