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Here at St. Joseph’s, we aim to provide a high-quality Geography education which will inspire pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, hopefully remaining with them for the rest of their lives.
Curriculum Intent
Here at St. Joseph’s, we aim to provide a high-quality geography education which will inspire pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, hopefully remaining with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Aims
EYFS
As part of the EYFS Framework, children are taught all about ‘Understanding the World’. This involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters.
In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
The most relevant statements, which are pre-requisites for Key Stage 1 Geography, are taken from the following areas of learning in the 2020 Development Matters framework:
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Key Stage 1 & 2
The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
- Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
- Are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
– collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
– Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs
– Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
Curriculum Impact
Assessment of children’s learning in Geography is an ongoing monitoring of children’s understanding, knowledge and skills by the class teacher, throughout lessons. This assessment is then used to inform differentiation, support and challenge required by the children.
Summative assessments take place throughout the year and teachers record the progress and attainment against the National Curriculum expectations. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately. This data is analysed on a termly basis to inform and address any trends or gaps in attainment.
Final end of year assessments are made using assessment criteria that has been developed in line with the National Curriculum. Thus identifying the level in which the child is working.
Below you will find the whole school subject overview and progression frameworks for this area of the curriculum.
9th November 2022: Eco-Warriors hold a ‘mini COP27’
This week, our school eco-warriors met with Miss Sophia and Mr. Drumm to discuss climate change and what we can do to look after our precious world that God has given us. We talked about the Conference of Parties 2027 or COP27 which is currently being held in Egypt. We also discussed what world leaders are doing to tackle the problems associated with climate change. After this, we held our own ‘mini COP27’ and children worked in groups to debate certain topics such as deforestation, sea-level rise and melting ice-caps.
23rd September 2022: Autumnal changes
This week, Year 2 had an outdoor workshop with our specialist environmental teacher, Miss Sophia. They recalled from Year 1 that during the season of Autumn, some trees start to change and also some animals might soon start hibernating as it gets colder. They also learned how to tell the difference between an old tree and a young tree. The children had some good ideas such as: “There are more cracks on old trees” and “Older trees might be taller” but Miss Sophia was amazed when someone suggested “Older trees are wider”. The children had lots of fun and can’t wait for their next session with Miss Sophia!
