What is Geography?

Geography at Alphington is the exploration of the world around us thinking about the physical and human features both in our local area and globally.

It is the understanding of how we impact the world we live in both in a positive and negative way and developing our geographical skills to navigate the world around us.

Pupil Voice (quotes from children)

Pupils believed that Geography is where you look at maps and where different cities are located.

“I learnt about rivers and knowing where rivers erode to make them wider.”

“I like learning about the rainforest and the different layers of the rainforest.”

Intent

Geography at Alphington provides a platform to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world as well as inspiring curiosity and interest to explore the world. Pupils gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world alongside their place in it and enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum subjects. The progressive curriculum equips pupils with a diverse knowledge and understanding of people, places, and natural, human and physical geography.

At Alphington, we want children to understand why the world is the way it is today; their impact on the world we live in and how they can make a difference for the future. We want pupils to challenge how we live today and begin to consider and design how the world will look like in the future understanding the role of climate change. Geographical knowledge and understanding will empower pupils to make a change.

At Alphington, we are creating our future Geographers

We want our children to:

• Be curious about the world they live in asking questions.
• Have relevant knowledge and understanding of their impact on the world today and over time.
• Begin to challenge and consider how their choices can change the future of the world.
• Be confident geographers and prepare them for the journey beyond.
• Use relevant and precise vocabulary to explain their geographical understanding

Implementation

At Alphington, Geography is taught in half-termly or termly blocks throughout the year.  This ensures children develop a deeper understanding and depth to their learning and can revisit, embed and implement previous skills and learning.  The detailed curriculum progression maps ensure Geography is progressive, all geographical knowledge is built upon each year starting from the Foundation stage and that teachers understand the key knowledge and skills of each topic.  By the end of year 6, children will be secure

Each Geographical theme is introduced through a ‘hook’ session or day.  Hooks provide engagement, excitement and a gateway into a new and exciting topic.  It is also a chance for pupils to share what they already know.  Hooks can vary from: exploration of our extensive school grounds, trips outside of school, map reading challenges, visitors in school sharing their knowledge and expertise and many more.  Geography provides excellent opportunities to support all learning abilities through investigations, outdoor learning and analysing sources.

The planning and progression and effective teaching and learning of Geography is supported through detailed curriculum mapping to ensure key vocabulary, skills and knowledge are accurately pitched following the National Curriculum and built upon each term and year and  fact finders which focus on key knowledge and learning in each unit.

Educational visits are a key part of our Geography curriculum which are planned in throughout the year and balanced against the rest of the curriculum.  Trips and visits offer opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional Geography learning outside the classroom. Our School grounds, Exeter and the surrounding area offers a wealth of Geography exploring the natural world and habitats of Pearl’s Land and forest area, finding out about the locality of Alphington, discovering the journey of a river from Dartmoor to the sea, exploring the Jurassic coast and beaches of Exmouth

Impact

Our Geography curriculum offers high quality, engaging and purposeful learning opportunities from Early Years to Year 6. The continuity and progression are built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within Geography and will be evidenced through learning displays, learning in pupil books and through online platforms including Tapestry.

The impact of our rich, rigours and engaging curriculum are pupils who show a curiosity and thirst for knowledge; pupils will have developed the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it; pupils who can apply Geographical skills to other areas of the curriculum.

To ensure our aims have been met, we scrutinise and moderate our Geography themes through:
Assessing children’s understanding of topic before and after the unit is taught through quizzes, pupil reflection and learning in books.

Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).

Moderation of the subject led by Curriculum Lead where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.

Termly Observations of teaching and learning of Geography.

Sharing good practice in staff meetings and further CPD opportunities to support subject knowledge and pedagogy.

Marking of written work in books against the schools marking policy.

Teachers to input data on Otrack to monitor and assess progression of key skills and knowledge in each year group.