Geography

We believe that if we open our hearts and minds to the possibilities each and every one of us, no matter how small, can make a difference in our school and beyond.  The parable of the Mustard seed teaches us that God can do a lot with a little!  At St. Michael’s school we passionately believe that every child has a natural curiosity to learn.  Through the delivery of an interesting and exciting curriculum, all of your young children will learn and grow as ‘geographers’.  We will inspire our children to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, enabling our children to become active citizens, growing up with the knowledge that they are guardians of the world and, as individuals, they can make a positive impact to the world in which they live.

How will the children learn and grow in Geography?

Our intention here at St. Michael’s is to deliver a structure and sequence of lessons that have covered the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum.  The content allows for a broad, deep understanding of the four areas of geography identified in the curriculum.

Geography will teach our children to appreciate the diversity in the world among people and environments, developing tolerance, respect and compassion towards their global community.

Within our enquiry-led Geography curriculum, we seek to equip children with the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to think creatively and critically, to investigate and to ask questions to enable them to gain a greater understanding, knowledge and appreciation of the world and their place in it.

At each stage of their geography education, children will deepen their locational knowledge, place knowledge and understanding or human and physical geography.  Geographical skills will be built upon, providing children with distinctive tools with which to successfully navigate and engage with their world at a local, national and international level.

The teaching of Geography will be rich in first-hand learning experiences.  Educational visits and visitors both within the local community and beyond will be used to enrich the learning experiences of all children and promote awe and wonder.

We intend to develop children’s curiosity and a fascination of the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  

How do we make this happen?

Early Years

Children develop their knowledge and understanding of the world through a range of hands on, and outdoor learning experiences.  Children learn about the world and its diverse people and places through the use of high-quality texts, visitors and technology.  As geographers, children are encouraged to explore, talk about and draw pictures of the world around them, making observations, and observing similarities and differences.  Children learn through a range of self-initiated and adult directed tasks.

Key Stage 1

Lessons are planned to improved children’s geographical vocabulary, map skills and geographical facts and provide opportunities for consolidation, challenge and variety to ensure interest and progress in the subject.  Outdoor learning experiences are used wherever possible.  Children begin to develop their fieldwork and observational skills by studying our school and the surrounding area, including Mickleham village.  They also use maps and recognise physical and human features to do with the local area, building to use maps to explore the continents and oceans of the world.  Children will have the opportunity to compare where they live to places in Europe and the rest of the world and ask and answer geographical questions. Geography is taught both in isolation and is woven into other subject areas, for example PSHCE, drama and Science.

St. Michael’s children have a range of opportunities to experience geography through practical engaging tasks beyond the classroom.

At St. Michael’s, to enrich children’s knowledge we have

Our topics offer a range of opportunities for investigating places around the world as well as physical and human processes.  It develops contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places and understanding of the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, along with how they bring about variation and change over time.

How do we know this has made a difference?

Geography learning is loved by teachers and children across our school, teachers have high expectations and quality evidence is presented in books.

As Geographers, our children use geographical vocabulary accurately and understand the different strands of geography, with an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

Children make relevant links from geography to other curriculum subjects, such as history, PSHCE and science.  All children realise that they have choices to make and can have an impact on the world, developing a positive commitment to the environment and the future of the planet.

They can interpret a range of sources of geographical information and they communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.  Impact is measured through key questioning skills during lessons, the children’s work using our Learning Intentions and Success checklist, assessment activities which enables targeting next steps in learning.

Geography is tracked using school’s adapted Rainbow Continuum assessment model.