Geography

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Geography at Fox Hill

“The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.”  Barack Obama

Intent

At Fox Hill, through our Geography curriculum we aim to inspire pupils to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world: to think like a geographer. We want pupils to develop the confidence to question and observe places, measure and record necessary data in various ways, and analyse and present their findings. Through our curriculum, we aim to build an awareness of how Geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. We hope to encourage pupils to become kind, resourceful, active citizens who will have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.

Our curriculum encourages:

• A strong focus on developing both geographical skills and knowledge.
• Critical thinking, with the ability to ask perceptive questions and explain and analyse evidence.
• The development of fieldwork skills across each year group.
• A deep interest and knowledge of pupils’ locality and how it differs from other areas of the world.
• A growing understanding of geographical terms and vocabulary.

Implementation

The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:

• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Geographical skills and fieldwork

Fox Hill’s Geography curriculum is designed to ensure the progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each year group. Our Progression of Knowledge and Skills shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that National Curriculum attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

Furthermore, our Curriculum is designed as a ‘spiral’, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography. Cross-curricular links are developed throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their geographical skills to other areas of learning.

Enquiry questions form the basis for our units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. These questions are open-ended, enabling them to be purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In answering the questions, our children learn how to collect, interpret and present data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.

Each topic contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. Our enquiry cycle maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements of the National curriculum. This ensures children at Fox Hill will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats. Fieldwork opportunities range from smaller scale observations within the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple topics enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places.

Lessons incorporate various teaching strategies from independent tasks to paired and group work, including practical hands-on, computer-based and collaborative tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appealing. When required, content is adapted to ensure that all pupils can access the key learning, as well as providing opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge through encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to deliver a highly effective and robust Geography curriculum, this is facilitated through CPD videos to develop subject knowledge, the Geography Coordinator providing support, as well as the coordinator participating in network meetings with experts in the field.

Impact

Our enquiry-based approach to our Geography Curriculum allows teachers to assess children against the National curriculum expectations. The impact is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson provides teachers with opportunities to assess pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each topic has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher, which can be used at the start or end of the unit to assess children’s understanding. Opportunities for children to present their findings using their geographical skills also form part of the assessment process in each topic covered.

As a result of implementing our Geography Curriculum, our pupils should leave school equipped with a range of skills and knowledge to enable them to study Geography with confidence at Key Stage 3 and beyond. We hope to shape children into curious and inspired geographers with a respect and appreciation for the world around them, alongside an understanding of the interconnection between the human and the physical.

The expected impact of our curriculum is that children will be able to:

• Compare and contrast human and physical features to describe and understand similarities and differences between various places in the UK, Europe and the Americas.
• Name, locate and understand where and why the physical elements of our world are located and how they interact, including processes over time relating to climate, biomes, natural disasters and the water cycle.
• Understand how humans use the land for economic and trading purposes, including how the distribution of natural resources has shaped this.
• Develop an appreciation for how humans are impacted by and have evolved around the physical geography surrounding them and how humans have had an impact on the environment, both positive and negative.
• Develop a sense of location and place around the UK and some areas of the wider world using the eight-points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and keys on maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs and digital mapping.
• Identify and understand how various elements of our globe create positioning, including latitude, longitude, the hemispheres, the tropics and how time zones work, including night and day.
• Present and answer their own geographical enquiries using planned and specifically chosen methodologies, collected data and digital technologies.
• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Geography.

Geography KS1 & KS2 National Curriculum Requirements

Geography Progression of Knowledge and Skills

The Geography Progression of skills and knowledge gives an overview of the skills and knowledge covered in each year group and strand and how these skills are developed in order to enable the children of Fox Hill to reach the end of key stage outcomes for Geography, as outlined in the National curriculum.

As our Geography curriculum develops and evolves, the information within this document will be updated to ensure it accurately reflects the content of our learning. 

Geography Knowledge Organisers

The Geography Knowledge Organisers outline the key knowledge covered in each Geography unit for each Year Group in their learning that term.