Geography

Geography at St Anne’s School

Subject Leader - Miss L Peel

“With Christ in our hearts we live life to the full.”

INTENT

At St Anne’s, we want the children to be fascinated by the world around them so we deliver a child centred approach to geography that inspire in our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the awe and wonder of our world and its people.

Our approach aims to equip pupils by providing 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. We will enable pupils to develop  contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places to deepen understanding between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.  The pupils will be given the opportunity to demonstrate geographical knowledge, understanding and skills that explain how the Earth’s features are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

As a School of Citizenship, we want our children to be active global citizens who value, respect and appreciate planet Earth and its people. We want our children to value their own, and others' surroundings and understand how they can impact our changing world.  We want the children to be able to ‘think like a geographer’ and understand that geography goes beyond the classroom environment and is important to the way that we live.

At St Anne’s we want our children to leave having a sense of possibilities and adventures which can be had both locally and all around the world.  We also want them to be environmentally responsible and be able to take positive actions to make a difference at both local and global levels.

IMPLEMENTATION

The Geography programme of study at St Anne’s follows the National Curriculum which has been broken down to ensure both progression and coverage across Key Stage 1 and 2.  

The teaching, learning and sequencing of the curriculum follows:  

• A geography progression of skills

• Each theme will be taught explicitly through exciting topics, including links to other areas of the curriculum  and whole school vision

• Fieldwork allowing pupils to explore their local area 

• A teaching sequence that builds knowledge and skills and concludes with a reflection and assessment of that knowledge

• In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons

   

• Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details some key information, dates and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and is used as a reference document

• CPD for teachers to ensure their skills and knowledge is developed to teach the skills confidently and accurately   

Our curriculum provides a coherent sequence of learning and coverage of the National Curriculum and key geographical skills needed for our learners to develop to their full potential.

Geography Curriculum Map

Geography Curriculum Document

We place value on locational knowledge by using our local area such as: Ilkley, Haworth, Saltaire, Halton Gill residential and  visits to the Yorkshire Dales to support our children's understanding of the world around them.  We place an emphasis on providing ‘real life’ experiences for all our children so they are able to develop their own geography enquiries and understand that there is a worlds outside of their school and home setting. Geography contributes hugely to cultural capital and personal development. We visit Whitby, the Yorkshire Dales, London and Paris.

IMPACT AND AIMS

By the end of their time at St Anne's, our children:

• are aware that they are learning geography in their lessons.

• will become global citizens who value, respect and appreciate the world and its people.

• value their own, and others, surroundings and understand how they can impact our changing world.

• ask questions to develop an enquiring and geographical mind.

• can make links between our local and worldwide geography.

• retain the knowledge of the physical and human features of the geographical locations they have studied.

• feel prepared for the next stage of their geography education and part of their adult life.

• feel a sense of pride in themselves, their community and the world.