Intent

At Buckshaw Primary School our aim is to provide high-quality Geography lessons, which inspire children’s curiosity and interests in the world around us. We intend to structure the curriculum in a way which focuses on developing children’s substantive knowledge of locations, places and physical and human characteristics of the world. The structure and development of this knowledge means, as they move up the school, they will broaden and deepen what they know about the world, it’s places, people and physical geography. Furthermore, as the children progress, we aim to encourage them to revisit prior learning to enable them to make connections and links to how our world is interconnected.

Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject. Through our subject knowledge, use of rich resources and planned development the disciplinary knowledge of map work, fieldwork and data collection, we intend to provoke thought and enquiry, which encourage children to discover answers to their own questions.

We also aim to develop the children’s real-life experiences and understanding through exploring the local and wider areas, inspiring children to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world through a hands-on approach.

We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of Geography in the wider community, and can use their geographical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in a variety of different contexts.

Implementation

At Buckshaw Primary School, Geography is planned and taught using Learning Challenge Curriculum. We enable teachers’ autonomy to use the use both this curriculum and the National Curriculum to tailor teaching and learning to meet the needs and interests of the children in their class. By the end of Year Six, it is expected that the children will have developed their knowledge and understanding of all of the skills set out in the Primary National Curriculum.

Each class has three subject overviews for the year which sets out the learning objectives, substantive and disciplinary knowledge and vocabulary for each of the three units for the academic year. Teachers will use these subjective overviews to guide their planning and teaching, ensuring that objectives can be met, skills taught and a breadth of geographical language is being developed.

Teachers are encouraged to consider opportunities available to use the school grounds and the local area for fieldwork to enable children to base learning on first hand experiences to enhance teaching and learning in Geography. Teachers will also be encouraged to explore opportunities for trips and visits to the wider area in order to develop geographical understanding first hand.

The teaching, learning and sequencing of the curriculum follows;

• A geography progression of substantive knowledge that aims to develop an understanding of location, place and human and physical features.
• A geography progression of disciplinary knowledge that aims to develop an understanding of location, place and human and physical features.  
• Fieldwork allowing pupils to explore their local area.
• A teaching sequence that begins with a discussion and assessment of what the children already know and are encouraged and aided to consider prior learning in order to make connections, followed by carefully planned lessons that develop vocabulary and core components of the over-arching question.
• Continuous CPD for teachers to ensure their skills and knowledge is developed to teach the skills confidently and accurately

The subject lead will ensure to monitor, evaluate and review the teaching and learning. In order to do this, learning walks, book scrutinies and discussions with pupils will take place frequently throughout the academic year.

Impact

By the end of their primary education at Buckshaw, our learners will have gained a rich body of geographical knowledge and a wide range of transferable skills, which they can apply to other subjects and contexts. We assess on a termly basis in order to build a rounded picture of each child as a geographer. This enables teachers to set appropriate, progressive targets and challenge children in their thinking and learning. It allows the subject lead to monitor and plan for further learning opportunities as the children move through the school. We aspire for children to leave Buckshaw being able to debate and discuss geographical issues and to be able to reflect and form their own opinions on matters such as climate change and natural disasters. We measure our impact based on pupils’ confidence to ask and explore questions to further their own geographical knowledge and understanding. They will be inquisitive young learners and citizens who choose to understand global environmental issues and seek to make a personal difference in protecting and shaping the world we share. In this way, we prepare our learners fully for transition to secondary school when they leave Buckshaw.