OUR KINGSTON GEOGRAPHY CURRICULUM

We Are Geographers!

GEOGRAPHY STATEMENT OF INTENT

Geography is a subject that informs every aspect of our lives. At Kingston, we aim to provide a landscape against which students can begin to contextualise what is going on in the world around them, from their immediate environment, to what they watch on television and hear in the news, to countries on the other side of the world. We believe it prepares children for life and empowers them to become active global citizens, by helping them to understand that there may be more than one way of tackling specific, real-life problems.

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All children should leave Kingston at the end of their primary journey with a deep understanding of key geographical information and the skills not only to answer questions, but also to be able to pose their own. We understand that progression is not just about knowing more but also understanding the significance of knowing more. By using a spiral curriculum, children will revisit core knowledge, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning, thus allowing the breadth and depth of their understanding of a topic to increase. Teachers will ensure outcomes are learner-driven to ensure lessons reflect the abilities and interests of each individual class to help ensure the best possible outcomes. Children will be taught the broad, highly transferable, highly-practical skills base that underpins geography, with a clear progression from Foundation Stage to Year 6. Teachers will ask themselves when planning ‘What knowledge and skills should they learn in years 3 and 4 that will help them to tackle complex concepts in year 5 and 6?’.  By using physical materials, new technologies and practical field studies, geography at Kingston will ignite pupils’ inner curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Implementation

Teaching

Teachers will deliver units with a clear geography focus, where they will ‘zoom in’ on one particular aspect of a larger unit, so that pupils will have a deep and meaningful understanding and will become experts. Each year group has their own yearly knowledge organiser that demonstrates a progression of knowledge and skills, along with a key vocabulary that each year must be taught. The length of the unit will depend on the needs of the individual class, and may last a term or be part of a longer study over the space of a year. Links will be made to previous learning so children understand the context of what they are learning and how new knowledge can build on their existing foundations. As part of our debating curriculum, children will be given the knowledge and skills to apply their understanding to answer larger questions about the world around us. Consideration is given to how greater depth will be taught, learnt and demonstrated within each lesson, as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. All recorded work will have the purpose of enhancing pupils’ skills and understanding. Some lessons may have a practical focus and we believe that is an important aspect of our geography curriculm.

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Resources

Pupils will regulary use maps (of varying scales), atlases and globes to support them with their learning. Children will understand the purpose and usefulness of each resource and will independently select the correct resource for each task. When conducting fieldwork, children will use a range of apparatus to complete their investigations effectively. GIS will be used in every year group with a clear progression of skills so that all children leave Kingston ready for secondary GIS. Pupils will also have regular access to ICT facilities to help enhance their geographical skills. Subject specific knowledge organisers and knowledge notes will be provided to help children gain knowledge and vocabulary and these will grow in complexity across year groups.

Questioning

Questioning is a key part of our geography curriculum and pupils are asked to justify their answers in order to develop their geographical thinking skills and vocabulary. Children will use non-fiction geography texts to answer written questions in reading comprehension lessons, using VIPERS to understand the type of question. Questions with links to geographical knowledge will also be used across all areas of the curriculum, including in Active Reading.

Repetition, retrieval and assessment

Knowledge and skills will be repeated to help strengthen all pupils’ knowledge and ability to independently apply their skills to solve a variety of problems. Quizzes will be regularly used in lessons as a fun and effective way to help children retain knowledge and all lessons will end with a ‘WhyU’ card to not only further consolidate learning, but also provide formative assessment for teachers so that they can best adapt future lessons. Lessons are tailored for the interests and needs of each class, so that every child is scooped up and moved along, regular mini quizzes are integral to our geography curriculum.

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Cross-curricular

Geography provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of pupils through the investigations, analysing sources and writing extending pieces. Meaningful links should be made in all aspects of the curriculum, from art to religion and worldviews, so that children can contextualise their learning and understand how the many different threads of the curriculum are interwoven. Pupils will be able to apply their mathematical skills, like statistics, measure and geometry to geography problems involving the interpretation of data using graphs to creating their own maps to fit a specific purpose. Pupils will also make links between human geography and history, and will build on pupils’ understanding of how settlements and their cultural diversity change and adapt.

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Fieldwork

At Kingston, we believe it is essential to provide learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. Fieldwork is an essential part of a robust geography curriculum as it not only develops subject knowledge but it helps pupils to gain a range of skills that are difficult to experience in the classroom. Learning outside of the classroom in a range of environments allows pupils to develop independent learning strategies and overcome challenges. Pupils will begin carrying out investigations in our school environment and will then zoom out to the wider area, carrying out a range of investigations, from looking at meanders and soil erosion in our local rivers to plastic deposits on our beaches and how this can be linked, for example, to The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Impact

All pupils will leave Kingston as geographers. They will have a clear understanding of the physical and human geography of our world and our role to protect it.  Children will deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and how these can have an impact on the landscape and environment. Through the process of repetition, retrieval and enriching and deepening their learning, children will have a bank of knowledge and vocabulary that will stay will them for life.  By building upon and strengthening their geographical skills, pupils will be able to communicate, interpret and analyse information so that they can form their own opinions. We want our children to have enquiring minds and the confidence in themselves that they know how to find out the answers. 

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The whole school were lucky enough to have the opportunity to experience the world around them from deep in the Amazon Rainforest to under the sea from the comfort of their classroom.  Using Virtual Reality headsets, pupils were able to explore the sights and sounds of the natural world.

Year Group Knowledge Organisers

Year Group Geography Key Vocabulary

Progression in Geography at Kingston