Geography

Being a Geographer is….

• appreciating the world including its people, places, landscapes, natural processes and our place in it.
• having knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
• being able to explore our physical and human world. Seeking to understand where things are found, why they are there and how they develop over time.

The General Principles of our curriculum are that children:

• Meet Jesus through all aspects of their work. It is our intention that the children will encounter Jesus through elements of their geography work. We hope to encourage them to look at the wonderful and complex world in which we live through new eyes and with greater understanding. Through the teaching of geography, our school values are embedded encouraging children to question and to foster/experience God’s awe and wonder asking ‘why’, whilst showing respect when understanding people’s backgrounds, religion, culture, nationality, languages, country and our wonderful world that God created. This then links in with our church and parish family where we all belong to a community that welcomes children and adults alike for whom England and English is not their native home or first language.
• Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning. As you walk around our school, look at our work and talk to our children, you will see them enjoying learning experiences that demonstrate the love our children have for geography. We are a school that nurtures motivated and curious children; who learn about people, food, religion, culture, nationality, languages, their local area, countries, continents, oceans and seas as well as the world in its entirety. The subject of geography encourages comparison, questioning, hypothesising and analysis through practical research of secondary sources and educational visits where primary evidence can be seen and learnt about. Our school sits in the heart of Grantham town allowing for a number of opportunities to teach a child about the geography of their local area, from EYFS up to Year 6. Within our school children learn about countries, nationalities and languages as we welcome many children and their families for whom England and English is not their native home or first language. The teaching of Geography takes a visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approach to learning (VAK) ensuring that it is accessible to ALL learners. Children find out about people, religion, food, culture, nationality, languages, their local area, countries, continents, oceans and seas as well as the world in its entirety through our progressive geography curriculum, which is inspiring and memorable for all, as it is practical and relevant: using video, artefacts, visits and links with the local community. Coming together to build knowledge and skills through lessons, trips and discussion fosters a sense of belonging.
• Learn within a coherent and progressive framework. Following a time of somewhat fragmented planning, that lacked fluency and clear progression, we have created our own long term and medium -term planning for all year groups from EYFS to Year 6. The framework is progressive and sequenced. It is powerful and transferable. It is intended to support a child to build up a sense of knowledge overtime and to use previous knowledge to access future knowledge. Our curriculum is planned in such a way that as a child moves through our school, their geographical knowledge and understanding will deepen as it would have been built on the foundations laid in the previous years. Planning provides the class teachers with three units of work for the academic year which will be taught in the terms of Advent 2, Lent 2 and Pentecost 2, with History being taught in the alternative terms. Within each unit, the class teacher is provided with six individual lesson objectives for the six lessons that they will teach. The planning allows opportunities for repetition and reinforcement of key learning/sticky knowledge between year groups and from EYFS to Key Stage One and from Key Stage One to Key Stage Two. This ensures that working memory is not overloaded but we give pupils and teachers time to ‘dive deeper’ and ‘linger longer’. This supports a child to ‘remember more and know more’ securing this knowledge in their long-term memory. We have also structured the framework to allow staff to use ‘Rosenshine’ principles in their teaching alongside their own personal experiences, activities and resources to augment this planning, as we do not follow a scheme. As a school we are working towards small components of learning being taught to reach a bigger composite at the end of a unit of work.
• See clear links between different aspects of their learning. Geography is not a stand-alone subject. Links are made to other areas of the curriculum, particularly History and Science, Religious Education, Art and Design Technology as well as a child’s outdoor learning in the WOW area.
• Understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future. We aim to equip our pupils with the knowledge, understanding and enquiry skills to understand the diversity of different people, religions, food, cultures, nationalities, languages, countries, continents, oceans and seas as well as the world in its entirety.
• Explore the breadth and depth of the national curriculum. The intention is that the learning goes beyond that of the National Curriculum and that areas of learning are planned to teach the geography of our local area here in Grantham and beyond, stretching out to our county of Lincolnshire, country England and the wider world, encompassing the countries that some of our children originate from. We believe that teaching geography in this way is important in broadening children’s horizons and developing life skills, empowering a generation of life-long learners in secondary school and beyond.

GSM GEOGRAPHY Overview 2023 24