Geography

The National Curriculum states that:

'A high-quality geography education 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. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.'

Intent: What we teach and why

It is our intent for the Geography element of our school curriculum to inspire pupils with a fierce curiosity about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should draw pupils towards knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. 

Rising Stars Geography provides a geography curriculum that is ambitious and designed for all pupils. It is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively providing the necessary knowledge and skills for the pupils’ future to empower them to take their role as informed and active citizens in the 21st century. Its emphasis is not just on geographical knowledge but also skills and concepts. It has the same challenging academic ambitions for all pupils. They all work from a shared starting point to answer the same key questions. Teaching staff take time to adapt and make any necessary changes to the content in order to personalise it to our children.

Implementation: How we apply this within our context

We frame concepts with an enquiry question to give us a basis for our learning. Children are given the opportunity to explore important issues and problems whilst considering how they can make a difference to both their local community and the wider world. 

A breadth of teaching approaches appropriate to the content and desired learning outcomes are used to engage all pupils and enable them to not just acquire knowledge but to apply it in meaningful contexts. Appropriate discussion is used as a means of checking pupils’ geographical learning systematically, identifying misconceptions and providing immediate feedback. There is emphasis on visual literacy in the use and questioning of these resources, as geography is essentially a visual subject. Summative 'quizzes' are built into learning units to assess pupils' knowledge so that misconceptions can be addressed before moving on. 

Impact: What the results will be, and how this will make a difference 

As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.

We want our children to gain confidence and have practical experiences of geographical concepts, underpinning knowledge and skills that explain how and why the Earth’s features are shaped, interconnected and change over time. The shared starting point of all pupils coupled with the challenges they are given stop their learning from having a 'glass ceiling' - Geography is a subject where everyone can feel freedom to achieve and be the best they can be. This is irrespective of academic achievement in other subjects. 

Key skills and key knowledge for Geography have been mapped across the school to ensure progression between year groups. This also ensures that there is a context for the children’s work in Geography; that they learn about real life examples and the purpose of studying Geography, as well as developing their skills throughout the programme of study.