Geography

Geography Curriculum Statement

Intent

At St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School, Geography teaches an understanding of places and environments. Our children learn about their local area and beyond. Through carefully planned and sequenced teaching our children become motivated to find out about the diversity of places, people and environments. We seek to inspire our children to be curious about the world around them. As a school where we all strive to be our best, we believe that all learning should be adapted to the needs of all children (SEN, EAL, more able, disadvantaged) and that the curriculum should be carefully planned to take account of everyone in the class so that we can all ‘Do something beautiful for God, each and every day’.

To build a geographical curriculum that endorses the importance for outdoor learning, the school grounds and local area are used by all year groups, all year round, for a range of practical activities and enquiry-led learning as fieldwork is integral to good geography teaching.  This starts in the Early Years and continues to Year 6 with daily outside learning opportunities and is further enriched by local walks and educational visits in both the local area and further afield. 

Further to understanding our locality, we aim to reflect the importance of global changes affecting the world in which we live. It is our intention that the study of Geography encompasses these issues. Geography will help pupils to raise and answer questions about the Natural and Human worlds. It will enable pupils to think critically about the impact human activity has on the environment, cities and population amongst others. It will spark pupils’ curiosity about places and people and will promote knowledge, interest and fascination about diverse places, their differing natural geography, human environments and resources. Geography at St Anthony’s will help pupils to become knowledgeable citizens who are concerned about the future of the world and are able to understand key geographical concepts as well as the connections that exist between people and places.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Geography is taught through topics, focusing on knowledge and skills as stated in the National Curriculum which provides a broad and balanced framework which is then supported by membership to national agencies such as the Geographical Society, Oddizzi and Digimaps.

At St Anthony’s Clayton, we ensure that geography is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.  Geography lessons focus on developing geographical skills and knowledge, with children working as geographers. We intend for our children to have real life experiences and learn about places and people in an active and creative way. The planning of learning begins with the skills and knowledge that need to be taught and then enrichment activities and opportunities to apply learning are carefully mapped into the annual plan for each year group.

Geography is taught throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year-by-year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children.

Impact

At St Anthony’s Catholic Primary, we provide a variety of opportunities for geography learning inside and outside the classroom. The children have many opportunities to experience geography onsite in our vast school grounds, in the local area and on day trips and residential visits which also provide an opportunity to further geography learning as children broaden their horizons. Outcomes in Geography books, and the books of other subjects, evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge and the progression of skills.

Our curriculum aims to ensure that by the time the children at St Anthony’s leave our school:

• Children will have participated in fieldwork activities which promotes geographical knowledge and understanding by bridging the divide between the classroom and the real world.
• Children will have had the opportunities to work in a supportive and collaborative learning space which fosters investigative and enquiry based learning.
• Children are able to use geographical vocabulary which is appropriate and accurate and which develops and evolves from EYFS through to KS2.
• Children can collect, analyse and present a range of data, gathered through experiences of fieldwork, to deepen understanding of geographical processes.
• Children use and interpret a wide range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs.
• Children are able to communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
• Children participate in a wide range of enrichment activities which promote a greater understanding of their place in the world, and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.
• Children understand other cultures and, in doing so, show a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural society.

Please click here to see how geography skills are planned for.

 Please click here to see the progression of vocabulary for geography through the school.

 Please click on the links below to see examples of our Medium term planning for units in Geography

Coastlines        Mountains

 Annual Overview