Geography Intent

Geography at Rimrose Hope CE Primary School is planned and taught to be engaging, challenging and accessible to all children. After each unit, children will have developed their knowledge about the world we live in and how they can take care of it. The geography curriculum has been designed with the National Curriculum in mind. Additionally, each year group has a unit which focuses on the current global warming issue, looking at issues such as sustainability, recycling and climate change. This ties in well with the Christian values of our school, in particular the stewardship value, as well as our school rule of Taking care of our community. Geography vocabulary is built into our curriculum, which progresses as they move through the school, building upon prior knowledge and learning. When appropriate, children are given hands on practical experiences through fieldwork, allowing them to apply knowledge they have learnt and discover new opportunities for learning. Our Eco council, Planet Protectors, deliver regular assemblies to the school, sharing their learning and views on sustainability and recycling. They also encourage all classes to follow the recycling opportunities that are possible in our school.

How is Geography taught at our school?

Geography at Rimrose Hope is taught throughout the school, following a sequence of learning. All planning follows the same structure, ensuring that prior learning is collected, knowledge is taught and children are given opportunities to showcase their understanding through a variety of activities. Geography is enquiry led based learning, allowing children to explore and wonder about the topic they are studying. All lessons start with a Hook and Immersion Centres to engage children into the unit of work. The children have the chance to record any wonderings that might occur within this session and through the unit. Wonderings allow the children to delve further into what they wish to learn related to the topic, whilst giving some children the motivation to research this themselves at home. The lessons then follow a progressive sequence, using a wide range of pedagogy techniques.

Some of these are:

Storyline,

T-Charts,

Strategic teacher,

Top hat comparisons,

Read for Meaning,

Agree/Disagree,

DeBono hats enquiry.

Throughout each unit, children are given opportunities to show mastery and depth through twist activities like, Odd one out, True/False, Positive/Minus/Interesting. In Geography children are also given Opinion Time, where they can give their opinion on a viewpoint within the lesson, giving their reasons why they think that. During the course of the unit, children will also be gaining a bank of knowledge, ready for a class quiz held against the other classes in the year group. This gives children a purpose to learn and remember facts (capital cities etc), whilst also giving children the opportunity to showcase the learning they have done throughout the unit of work. Because of this pedagogy, Geography is an inclusive subject, allowing all children to make progress.

Geography Coverage

The Geography coverage at Rimrose Hope has been created in line with the National Curriculum, to ensure that there is coverage, whilst also being relevant to the children. Expected pedagogy has been shared with staff during a staff meeting, ensuring that all lessons are planned with the same intent and that teaching is consistent across the school. Book monitoring takes place to check coverage of key skills, pedagogy techniques and monitor opportunities and evidence of mastery and depth activities. Twilight sessions have taken place for orienteering, to ensure staff have a knowledge of how to teach mapping skills within a geography session.

What provision is there for geography across the curriculum?

Geography links with many subjects and our curriculum at Rimrose Hope offers many opportunities for cross curricular learning to take place. Many of our English texts have a geographical focus, allowing children to make those links between subjects. (Greta and The Giants, Someone Swallowed Stanley, Kenzuke’s Kingdom, Varmints, Flower, The Bee Book, There’s a ‘rang-tan in my Bedroom) Within some of the Geography units of work, children are given the opportunity to write at length using English features. (Non-chronological reports, persuasive letters) During some units, children have the opportunity to look at how areas have changed over time, linking in some of the History skills they have developed throughout their History units of learning. Through PE, children have the opportunity to develop and improve mapping skills within their orienteering lessons. Our Computing curriculum allows children to use technology to develop research skills, and present work in various ways. (Book Creator, Powerpoint, digital posters, surveys)