Geography at Westmorland Primary School

The KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum (2014) in England sets the standards of learning for 5 to 11-year-olds. The curriculum provides a purpose, aims of study, attainment targets and subject content for each subject.  
Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Geography, as part of our broad and balanced curriculum, ensuring our provision is inclusive to every child. 
INTENT:
At Westmorland we strive for our children to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  We are committed to developing all children by giving MORE through Memorable Learning, Oracy, Reading and Experiences.
To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our Geography curriculum is organised into a progression of skills supported by knowledge organisers. These outline the skills, knowledge and vocabulary needed to succeed. 
The aims of teaching Geography in our school are:

•    To inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about the world.
•    To enable children to know about the location of the world’s continents, countries, cities, seas and oceans.
•    To develop in children the skills of interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
•    To help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes its location and can change over time.
•    To provide opportunities to study mathematics across the curriculum through geography lessons.

IMPLEMENTATION: 
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. When covering each of these curriculum areas, the content has been carefully organised (through knowledge organisers) to ensure skills are built upon each year. 

Geography is taught for one half term per term. Teachers use the knowledge organisers to aid planning and plan weekly lessons in greater detail, ensuring meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for the children. 

All learning will start with revisiting prior knowledge and ensuring key information sticks within a child’s long-term memory. Our lessons continue to follow the MORE structure ensuring they are Memorable, enable the development of Oracy and Reading skills and include real life Experiences. 

The learning will include:
•    Providing opportunities for fieldwork both on the school site and in the local area.
•    Encouraging the children to contribute to the life of the school and the community, and use these ‘real’ contexts to develop their skills and knowledge in Geography.
•    Access to a range of Geographical concepts within context that can be understood at various levels. 
•    Understanding concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes; the interrelationships between places, environments and processes.
•    The use of technology to bring the world to life (e.g. Google Earth)
•    Children will have the opportunity to clearly explain and express their own thoughts and opinions upon Geographical matters.
•    Establishing cross-curricular links:
o    History - to know where in the world events took place
o    Maths - directions, coordinates and statistics
o    Art - knowing where an artist comes from or where specific art was created or is displayed
o    Food Technology – understanding where food comes from
o    Modern Foreign Languages – Understanding where the language is spoken

IMPACT: 
Pupil voice will be used to enable subject leaders to assess if the aims of the Geography curriculum have been achieved by understanding if the children know and remember MORE. Through implementing memorable learning skills, children are becoming more in tune with how they learn and are happily engaged in the carefully planned activities accessible to them. Children should not only be taught a skill but should also have it deeply embedded in their long-term memory. Following the years teachings, children should be able to apply and expand on their Geography knowledge. Making them ready to further build on these skills in the following year.