Intent
At Christ Church Academy we believe that geography helps provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Pupils are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world around them. This includes the environments, places near and far, and the processes that create and affect them. In doing so, pupils begin to develop their own thinking and challenge generalisations.
We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exist across continents, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We hope to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people and resources, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. It is also important that pupils can make comparisons over time with particular aspects of geography. Ultimately, pupils will develop a knowledge of why a phenomenon occurs (including human and physical processes interacting to influence and change landscapes) and the impacts that it has both in the world around them and contrasting environments (such as sustainability) – ‘thinking like a geographer’.
With regards to geographical skills, we aim to allow pupils to collect, represent and interpret spatial information to acquire first-hand an understanding of the world around them. We aim for them to be able to explain what they have observed using their knowledge on both human and physical geography.
The curriculum is designed to assure breadth, coverage, content and a structure that enables clear progression in knowledge and skills.
Implementation
Geography at Christ Church is taught in topics throughout the year following Oddizzi, which sets out lessons and learning objectives so that pupils return to and build upon prior knowledge and skills. Consideration has been given to ensure progression occurs across topics throughout each year group across the school. At Christ Church pupils will have on average three geography-led topics a year. Skills and knowledge acquired in the Autumn and Spring terms feed into a place-based study in the Summer. Pupils begin learning about processes (human or physical) before applying this knowledge to place-based studies. For example, in Year 4 pupils learn about rivers and then rainforests before their final topic being South America – the Amazon – which draws upon both of the previous topics.
At the beginning of each topic, children partake in a verbal quiz to reaffirm prior learning in that Key Stage. The Geography Team has compiled a short list of questions from each Oddizzi unit with the key learning aims. Pupils are then given the opportunity to verbally answer these questions. This aims to enhance pupil retention of learning, to form links and build upon their new learning that term.
Another way we try to enhance pupils’ long term memory is by carefully sequencing the order of topics (in manageable ‘bite-size chunks’ to avoid overloading) so pupils can appreciate how one component relates to another and build upon this in future years. For example, in Year R pupils learn their seasons. This develops in Year 1 as pupils learn about the weather and seasons. This then develops in Year 2 as pupils learn about hot and cold places. In Key Stage 2 this is enhanced further by learning about why certain phenomena happen: in year 3 they learn about climate zones (with a link to farming), in Year 4 they learn about the water cycle and in Year 5 pupils learn about extreme weather events.
Over the course of each topic pupils use Digimaps to enhance their location knowledge to understand the geography of the region being studied that term and consequently the effects of this on the geographical aspect being taught. Pupils will also start to appreciate scale.
Fieldwork - The local area is utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice. This begins in Year R where pupils have multiple trips in our locality.
Impact
We aim for our pupils to be confident geographers who are able to discuss their learning and make links where appropriate between both human and physical geography to explain processes that impact the world around us.
Outcomes in geography books evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. The Geography Team conduct book looks and speak to pupils to ensure that the progression of knowledge, vocabulary and skills is there both within the year and across year groups. CPD sessions in staff meetings are also held over the course of the year to address any areas for further development.
Pupils have a quiz at the end of each unit, recorded in the back of books, which serves to assess pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Staff will then use these outcomes in future starters or future units of geography to address any misunderstandings. Anything beyond that will be looked at by the Geography Team to decide whether or not adjustments to the curriculum need to be implemented to ensure pupils remember and understand the content.
