Geography

At a whole school level, we ensure all areas of the geography programme of study from the National Curriculum are covered in depth and that there is a clear progression of skills (which can be seen through our planning, children’s work and the progression grids). The children’s knowledge and skills, as a result, are built on year-on-year for geography. Objectives are covered appropriately to ensure key skills and knowledge are revisited in different ways throughout the school, where appropriate, giving these chance to be embedded. This detailed planning is monitored by team-leaders and the geography lead who are also available to support throughout the process of planning and teaching. This enables high-quality geography lessons to be planned and taught throughout the school, with individual teacher development supported where required or requested.

Geography is assessed termly using Otrack and then monitored by the geography lead. Provision is subsequently put in place by class teachers, where appropriate, for those children who need it.

Children are excited and engaged in geography lessons which form the core of many of our learning projects. There is high participation in class discussions during lessons and work of a high quality is produced. Learning objectives are mapped out throughout each year group and planned in accordingly to allow for progression throughout the school. Children are asked about their prior knowledge at the beginning of each learning project and key questions are gathered about what they would like to include on our learning journey. Our learning journey displays provide a key focal point in every classroom where children can be reminded of their prior learning and they can follow the key questions throughout the half term to know where their learning is heading.

At the beginning of every geography lesson, children are asked key questions about their learning during the previous lesson to help them to embed the key knowledge and skills which have already been covered during that learning project.

Each key stage aims to maximise opportunities to partake in educational visits both locally and further afield. We aim to offer more and more opportunities for geography learning to take place outside of the classroom. EYFS children explore the local area during their biweekly forest school sessions which allows them to build the foundations of being children who are curious about their local area and the geographical features they may find in it.