Geography Curriculum

"Geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides

and bring people together.'  Barack Obama 

Our Vision:

At Rimrose Hope CE Primary we are passionate about educating our children to be citizens of the globe. Through our engaging and challenging geography curriculum, our children are given the opportunity to explore our ever changing planet and to develop the skills to understand its physical and human features. 

Skills of a great geography student: 

•  A curiosity and fascination for the world around them
•  Have a deep understanding of the world’s physical features and processes
• Have knowledge of the planet’s significant places and be able to make comparisons between them.
• Be able to collect and interpret a range of data from the world around them
• Be able to make connections between the physical and human features of our planet to other areas of the curriculum

Our Curriculum

Geography  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, how it will change going forward and how they can take care of it. The geography curriculum has been designed with the National Curriculum, as a minimum. We go beyond National Curriculum expectations, by also looking at the future. Each year group has a unit which focuses on the current global warming issue, looking at issues such as sustainability, recycling, climate change and renewable energy. 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.

Our Pedagogy

All of our units of work have a clear structure and teaching sequence. Prior learning is built upon and key knowledge and skills are 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.

Vocabulary

The teaching of vocabulary during geography lessons is an essential component of our pupil’s education and fundamental in developing comprehension, expression, and critical thinking. It is important for students to develop a strong geography vocabulary so they may verbally communicate about their own or others' geography work.

Based upon the work of Mary Myatt, we strongly believe that children who have a rich vocabulary are better able to understand what they read, communicate their ideas clearly, and analyse and evaluate information effectively. Additionally, a broad vocabulary helps children to develop their creativity and imagination, as well as their ability to make connections and draw conclusions.

Vocabulary is a key component of our geography curriculum. It is regularly referred to throughout all interactions. We provide opportunities for the children to encounter vocabulary through high-quality texts, all conversations, independent reading, being read to, modelled writing, listening to others, encounters on trips and with experts.

We use a number of practical strategies to help children to develop their vocabulary

• Class shared texts: vocabulary can be discussed in the context of the text being read. Children are encouraged to apply this learning in their class discussions and written work.
• Class environment: working walls display specific vocabulary that children can refer to. They are kept up-to -date and accessible. We aim to develop a rich language environment.
• Knowledge organisers: topic-specific vocabulary will be sent home to parents on subject knowledge organisers so words can be discussed at home
• Specific teaching: where the teacher identifies certain words and provides direct instruction in word learning strategies (looking at root words, finding synonyms and definitions etc).
• Scaffolds: we use sentence frames and sentence stems to support children in their use of new vocabulary
• Practice: children are encouraged to use new vocabulary accurately within full sentences in their speech as well as their written work.  Ambitious or new vocabulary used by the children is celebrated by the teachers through verbal and written feedback.

Mastery and Depth

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.

Cross-curricular links

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) 

Endangered Animals Showcase

Throughout school, the children learnt about a specific endangered animal from Sumatra.

EYFS - Sumatran Butterfly

KS1 - Sumatran Tiger

LKS2 - Sumatran Orangutan

UKS2 - Sumatran Songbirds

Each class developed their geographical enquiry skills throughout the topic and displayed their learning in the whole school showcase. Parents were invited in to journey through our 'rainforest' and view the work their children had done. 

Eco Art Week

Planet Protectors visited Crosby beach and were shocked by how much litter was on the beach. The children revisited the beach armed with their litter pickers and collected lots of rubbish, rubbish which could have either been recycled or reused. Wanting to take further action, the children took photographs of the rubbish they collected and delivered an assembly to the whole school. The children then decided that they wanted to turn ‘rubbish’ into pieces of artwork.

Each class learnt about recyclable and non recyclable plastics and materials, the children researched the impact plastics were having on our oceans and then planned a piece of artwork that would send out a message about reusing and recycling materials to save our planet.

Once the artwork was completed, each class exhibited their work outside for parents and carers to see. The children then thought ‘so what’ and write a pledge, identifying one change that they would make to combat the plastics problem in the world.