Geography
The Intent, Implementation and Impact of our Curriculum.
Intent
At The Smallberry Green Primary School, we plan and delivery a high quality, inclusive and engaging Geography curriculum, which aims to inspire all groups of learners including children with SEND, EAL, PPG and the most able. We believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world, allowing children a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, its interconnectedness and their place in it. We seek to create a life-long love of the subject, through teaching our children about diverse places, people and resources. Through the study of natural and human environments, as well as physical and human processes, our desire is to provide our children with a sense of awe and wonder about the world they live in. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives, equipping them well for further education and beyond.
At Smallberry Green, all children investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Greater London so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. We are also developing the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences. We ensure that all groups of children obtain first hand experiences of these places through trips and visitors into school.
Implementation
At Smallberry Green Geography is taught weekly every other half term. The Geography curriculum seeks to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Promoting 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 is at the core of all of our lessons and teaching.
We have a strong focus on developing children’s fieldwork skills and ensure that every year group teaches a proactive, outdoor fieldwork unit once a year. We also ensure that at least one year group is teaching a fieldwork unit per half-term to ensure that fieldwork is constantly taking place at Smallberry. This is part of our vision to foster engagement and a culture of Geography at Smallberry.
Consideration is given to how those with prior knowledge/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. Cross-curricular outcomes in Geography are specifically planned for, with strong links between Geography and History, planned for and utilised. The local area is fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.
Our geography schemes of work have been carefully planned through ensuring they are relevant to children’s backgrounds, whilst making links to history, the local area and using ideas from the Geographical Association too.
Impact
Geographical outcomes in all books, evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Our Geography curriculum is resourced and supported by leading organisations such as the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society and is planned to demonstrate good progression between year groups. Pupil voice and books demonstrate that all children build on their geographical understanding, knowledge and skills from year to year and make good progress.
Whole School Geography Curriculum map