Geography at The Pines

Geography is the subject that holds the key to the future - Michael Palin

Vision and Intent

At The Pines, our vision for the teaching of Geography is that children are able to locate countries from around the world and know how our planet has changed and developed from the start of time to the present day.

We aim to:

• Provide an engaging Geography curriculum that inspires a love of learning about our world and how it has evolved over time.
• Open children's minds to the wide variety of cultures, traditions and beliefs found in different countries and discover where these originated.
• Give children a great sense of place; both in where they live and what beliefs they follow.
• Use our Geography curriculum to represent the diversity within our own school.

Our Curriculum Drivers are reflected through our Geography curriculum as it:
Helps children understand THEIR PLACE IN OUR WORLD, by comparing our culture to other cultures from around the world.
Develops their LANGUAGE & ORACY skills through the introduction of geographic vocabulary when learning about both human and physical geography.
Enables children to LEARN the SKILLS of critical thinking as they discover how our actions today are affecting our planets future.
Promotes having a HEALTHY BODY through comparisons of different countries cultures and how diets differ depending on the countries landscape, climate and agriculture.

Implementation

Geography at The Pines is taught using a variety of teaching and learning styles in order to develop children's knowledge, skills and understanding. The lessons are planned alongside the National Curriculum objectives and are tailored to maximise the outcomes for each year group. Our geography curriculum is taught over a two year cycle with KS1 classes changing their topic every half term and KS2 classes changing topic every term.

Entry point

At the start of a new curriculum topic, the children take part in activities to immerse them into their new area of learning. When the curriculum area has a focus on a geographical event or location this may involve:

• Using maps to locate cities, countries or continents.
• Going on a trip to a museum or place of interest.
• Having an opportunity to handle resources taken from a specific location or geographical event, within the classroom.
• Producing a piece of art work or model relating to the topic in some way.
• Looking at secondary sources of information such as books and films.
• Using drama to act out geographical events.

These entry point activities promote a sense of awe and wonder and engage the children in their new area of learning.

Big Question

Additionally, at the start of a new curriculum topic the children will be posed a big question. The big question is open ended and often has numerous ways it can be answered. Throughout the topic of learning, the children will gain knowledge and an understanding of that geographic event or location in order to answer the original big question. Our big questions can be found on the knowledge organisers and topic overview documents found below.

The subsequent lessons throughout the term will therefore all link back to the big question. Lessons are often taught in isolation but can also be blocked to enable focused learning over a period of time.

Lessons

Geography is often taught using a cross-curricular approach as the unit of learning will often link other subjects such as history and science.

Exit point

At the end of each humanities unit, the children will take part in a variety of exit point activities. The aim of the exit point is to allow children to make explicit links in their learning, consolidate facts and ideas taught throughout the unit and deepen their understanding of how our world works. 

Impact

The impact of our geography teaching is evidenced through teacher assessment, low-stakes tests and lesson observations. Children are able to voice their opinions on their learning as well as locate a variety of cities, countries and continents across the world. The written outcomes evidenced in children's books demonstrate that they have a secure understanding and can verbalise the knowledge they have learnt.

-Children at The Pines have a secure understanding of where places are located.

-Children understand how our actions today can impact the future of our world.

-Children can reflect upon and form opinions about geographical events.

-Children have a positive attitude towards geography in school.