Intent

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At Orchard Junior School our primary intent is to have an engaging and inspiring curriculum with high academic ambition for all pupils.  In geography, we aim to promote a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will continue to develop throughout their lives.  Through our teaching, we endeavour to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, as well as gaining an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

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The 2014 National Curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all children:

• Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.

• Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

• Are competent in the geographical skills needed to: collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.

• Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

• Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

 

At OJS our curriculum is based principally on the National Curriculum , with our own additions and enhancements.It develops both knowledge and geographical skills.  Through our units, we ensure our curriculum is taught in a logical progression, systematically and explicitly, building on previous learning and skills for future learning.

 

In our geography teaching we aim to develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of people, places and environments around the world.  As children study geography they gain an appreciation of life in other countries and cultures.  Geography inspires children to think about their own place in the world, their values and their rights.  Geography teaching motivates children to find out about the physical world and enables them to recognise the importance of sustainable development for the future of mankind.

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At Orchard, we encourage children to respect and care for their environment to sustain its future.  With an exciting and positive learning environment, we are committed to igniting the passion to travel to, see, support and experience different sights, cultures and climates of the world.

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Implementation 

 

At OJS, we incorporate geography into our topic themed learning, therefore children are immersed into the subject using a variety of practical and cross-curricular opportunities. Teachers create a positive attitude to geography learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards.

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Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of geography involves the following;

• Geography will be planned and taught in topic blocks by the class teacher.  Our Orchard Curriculum shows the progression in teaching and learning in each year group and provides teachers with the key subject specific element in the previous and following year group. Teachers can use this to recap and build on prior learning successfully. This is a strategy to enable the achievement of a greater depth of knowledge and understanding as well as support the retention of facts.  

• Through our planning, children are given a range of knowledge and skills based activities. Planning involves teachers creating engaging lessons, involving high-quality resources. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test knowledge and skills.

• Teachers use a range of formative assessment tools to check pupils’ understanding and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.

• Children increase their cultural capital through visits, visitors and themed days. These specialist visits and visitors deliver high quality workshops to facilitate and support geographical learning by building on the children’s prior knowledge and aspire them to think of their futures and their prospective career paths. 

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Impact 

 

As children progress through OJS they cover the full geography curriculum developing a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation for their local area and its place within the wider geographical context.  Children deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and how this affects landscapes and environments..

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Children deepen their understanding of geography through exciting and stimulating topics, where they can become fully immersed in their learning. Geographical understanding, as well as children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is further supported by the school’s links with local visitors and organisations.