Geography
Learning Journey
3 i Statement
Intent
The principle aim of Wynstream’s Geography curriculum is to equip children with the cultural capital and geographical skills and knowledge they require to succeed in the next phase of their education and beyond. It is designed to raise awareness of the serious environmental challenges we face and the obligation that we all have, to engage with those issues and contribute to their solutions. Wynstream’s Geography curriculum meets and exceeds the requirements of the National Curriculum. It is ambitious, knowledge rich and fully embodies our school’s core values. Its Physical Geography component promotes a curiosity about the natural geographical phenomena that make up the earth’s surface and its Human Geography component exposes pupils to a diversity of people and cultures, locally, regionally, and globally.
Implementation
Our implementation approach is based on the most current cognitive research. A variety of memory retention strategies are routinely used to support the transference of information from working to long term memory.
Locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography are delivered alongside geographical skills and fieldwork skills, across all year groups.
In the Early Years, Understanding of the World is comprised of 3 strands: People, Culture and Communities and The Natural World. Children learn to observe and talk about the physical and natural world around them in a variety of ways including: taking local walks; trips to post office; mapping their journey to school; comparing types of homes; visits from firefighters and police; growing vegetables; hatching ducklings; going on mini-beast hunts; keeping a seasonal observation table and by monitoring the daily weather forecast.
Children experience a wide range of stories, rhymes, poems, maps alongside real-life experiences (food, music, dance) and artefacts (multicultural dress up clothes in role play) to support their geographical vocabulary and understanding and knowledge of their local community and the wider, culturally diverse world. In the Early Years, children compare the similarities and differences in family life between different culturally and religious communities as they learn how families celebrate religious festivals and culturally significant events throughout the year. They are taught to care for their local and global environment and are encouraged to think about the impact of litter in their local environment and the importance of recycling.
By the end of KS1, children will have started to use geographical skills to understand and observe the world around them. They will begin to note the similarities and differences in the physical and human geography of their own locality relative to other locations both regionally and internationally. In KS2, our spiralled curriculum provides children with multiple opportunities to consolidate and expand the locational knowledge they have acquired in KS1. In Lower KS2 they are introduced to the key aspects of both Physical and Human Geography and then revisit, compare, and contrast these themes, in Upper KS2, as they apply them to different cities and continents across the globe. Both man-made and natural disasters are vital components of our KS2 curriculum. Children leave our school with an appreciation of the potentially devastating power of nature as well as the role that human beings are playing in both the destruction and conservation of our world.
Impact
The primary aim of our geography curriculum is to inspire curiosity about the internal processes of the earth and the way that human beings impact and are impacted by the physical geography of their locality. At Wynstream, we use a variety of strategies to measure the extent to which we are effectively implementing our curriculum. Pupil voice, however, is at the core of ongoing formative and summative assessment. Rates of progress and attainment are primarily judged based on a pupil’s ability to articulate their learning both orally and in written form. Pupil voice is routinely monitored by subject leads and children are assessed based on their ability to successfully engage with the key assessment questions at the heart of every unit of learning.
