Button Lane Primary School

Geography

Geography Lead - Mrs Thompson and Mrs Davies

Intent

At Button Lane we believe that our Geography curriculum will inspire a curiosity and fascination in our children about the world and its people that will stay with them long after they leave our school. The teaching will ensure a progression of knowledge about places, people, resources and natural and human environments along with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

Our aim is to widen the world of our children through a Geography curriculum that provides real life experiences. These experiences will enable our children to develop a deeper sense of self as they gain a firm knowledge and understanding of their local area as well as how that compares to the wider world.  We want our children to develop ambitions of travelling to different destinations around the world and spark a natural instinct to exploring the world around them. From EYFS through to KS2, our children will be encouraged to use specific geographical vocabulary to ask questions and to find answers through research and field work.

We develop skills which allow our children to make their own deductions, and form ideas on local and global concerns.  Our Geography curriculum allows our children to be introduced to many different cultures and environments. We create an ethos which encourages empathy and understanding for those experiencing different living conditions and the challenges faced by others.  Each Geography project is connected to a Sustainable Development Goal to help pupils use their geographical knowledge to understand the goals and their importance. By the end of Key Stage Two, we intend for all our children to have a basic knowledge of each of the Sustainable Development Goals as a result of our Geography curriculum and Global Learning days. We aim to ensure that our children can talk in more detail about some of the goals and show an understanding of what they can do to make difference within their community. 

Implementation

Our curriculum meets the aims and objectives from the National Curriculum. It has been carefully mapped out into a clear progression across school that allows children to build on prior learning and acquire new knowledge. Each unit highlights the key knowledge that we want them to know by the end of each unit and that they can take with them throughout school as they build on their learning.  We have created a curriculum to widen our children's world and life experiences through a clear progression of fieldwork activities to strengthen their knowledge and learning journey. 

Our progression in vocabulary introduces children to subject specific language which they can use throughout their learning.  Each year group studies 3 Geography units per year to provide them with a knowledge about places, people, resources and natural and human environments along with a deep understanding of the Earth's key physical and human processes.

Each Geography project is connected to a Sustainable Development Goal to help pupils use their geographical knowledge to understand the goals and their importance.

By the end of Key Stage Two, our children  have a basic knowledge of each of the Sustainable Development Goals as a result of our geography curriculum and Global Learning days. 

Impact

Assessment is used as a tool to inform our teaching and learning and to measure the impact of the curriculum we have created. We vary our approach to assessment to ensure it is tailored towards each subject. It takes place purposefully and meaningfully at key points across the year.

We assess each Geography unit in the following ways:

• Low stake end of unit reviews to assess key knowledge and end points of a unit to enable misconceptions to be highlighted and targeted early
• Moderation within school 
• An end of unit outcome
• Pupil Voice

Conversations between subject leaders and class teachers take place to ensure that standards across the curriculum are monitored and reported annually to staff,  parent’s and  governors.