The Geography curriculum is an ambitious curriculum meeting the needs of all learners and contextualised in the community we serve.

Through Geography we aim to develop our pupil’s awareness of the world around them. Geography should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We showcase different cultures, environments, people and landscapes and encourage children to investigate and ask questions about what they see.  They learn how physical and human geography are interrelated and find out about the natural and man-made features of the world. Teaching encourages geographical enquiry and skills development as well as developing a sound knowledge and understanding of places, patterns and processes.

We make use of the local environment, including our Forest School setting, together with a wide range of secondary sources including video clips, research books and the internet.

At Severnbanks Primary School, we believe Geography is integral to helping children understand the world around them and their place within it. We believe Geography learning should be broad, balanced and inclusive; inspiring pupils to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world. We want pupils to develop the confidence to question and observe places, measure and record necessary data in various ways, and analyse and present their findings. Through the our Geography teaching, we aim to build an awareness of how Geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. We hope to encourage pupils to become resourceful, active citizens who will have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.

Through Geography, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, critical thinking, problem-solving, analysing evidence; curiosity and resilience. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school. Our Geography curriculum, enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum and the aims of the scheme align with those in the national curriculum. We aim for all children to aspire to be Geographers and achieve this.

 

 

Our Geography curriculum is designed to:

•          Encourage children to cultivate and investigate questions they have about the natural and human aspects of the world.
•          Enable children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
•          Inspire in children a curiosity about and an appreciation of their immediate environment and the wider world, broadening their understanding of people and place.
•          Promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
•          Develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Severnbanks and beyond.
•          Develop a growing understanding of geographical terms and vocabulary.

Our Geography curriculum is centred on the four key strands of The National curriculum for Geography:

• Locational knowledge

• Place knowledge

• Human and physical geography

• Geographical skills and fieldwork

Our Geography curriculum has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within the aforementioned four strands across each year group. Our Progression  document shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

The impact and measure of our Geography curriculum is to ensure that our students are equipped with a range of skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in the next phase of their Geography education and for them to develop a curiosity and appreciation of the world and their place within it.

Children will:

•          Compare and contrast human and physical features to describe and understand similarities and differences between various places in the UK, Europe and the Americas.
•          Name, locate and understand where and why the physical elements of our world are located and how they interact, including processes over time relating to climate, biomes, natural disasters and the water cycle.
•          Understand how humans use the land for economic and trading purposes, including how the distribution of natural resources has shaped this.
•          Develop an appreciation for how humans are impacted by and have evolved around the physical geography surrounding them and how humans have had an impact on the environment, both positive and negative.
•          Develop a sense of location and place around the UK and some areas of the wider world using the eight-points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and keys on maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs and digital mapping.
•          Identify and understand how various elements of our globe create positioning, including latitude, longitude, the hemispheres, the tropics and how time zones work, including night and day.
•          Present and answer their own geographical enquiries using planned and specifically chosen methodologies, collected data and digital technologies.
•          Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Geography.

Extra curricular provision

At Severnbanks we aim to provide our pupils with regular opportunities to complete field work and to engage with local geography. Staff encourage pupils to pursue this outside of the curriculum, encouraging them to take advantage of the geography that Lydney and the Forest of Dean has on offer.

WE organise opportunities for children to learn more about Geography through day excursions and residential trips. In the past, this has included visits to Farms, Gloucester Waterways Museum, Wenchford, Beechhurst, Barry Island and Lydney Docks. At the end of KS2, pupils have the opportunity to participate in a residential visit to a PGL Osmington Bay, where children explore the geography of the area. Severnbanks also run an eco-club and participate in Junior Street Wardens, which encourages them to actively engage in environmental issues locally and further afield.

Developing the skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking and listening through Geography

Geography lessons and learning offer a great deal to support the development of pupils’ literacy and provide purposeful opportunities to develop effective reading and writing skills and to be able to communicate orally.  We promote a language geography curriculum, with children being introduced to a topic-specific language at the start of each unit of learning.  Children are encouraged to be curious and question, debate and discuss in lessons and to be active listeners.