Geography at Hill View Primary Academy
History or Geography adaptation guidance
Introduction
In Geography at Hill View Primary Academy, children develop their curiosity and fascination about the world around them and they are inspired to think about the world beyond their place in it. They develop their knowledge of people and places, to understand the physical, social and economic forces which have shaped and continue to affect those places and the lives of the people who live there.
The children learn to use maps at different scales in order to locate cities, countries, mountain ranges, rivers, seas and oceans. They use a variety of sources such as atlases, photos and the internet, to explore the people, environment and economics of the countries they study. We will study local areas through fieldwork to inform the children’s understanding of geographical phenomena. Children extend these studies into the wider world, studying diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Principles and Geography Intent:
At Hill View, it is our aim in Geography to develop children who aspire to become global citizens, with a strong understanding of local, national and international Geography. We aim to give them experiences that provide a high-quality education that fosters curiosity and fascination of the world and its people. This will involve developing core knowledge relating human and physical characteristics, the UK and local areas, the world and continents, place knowledge and geographical skills and fieldwork.
It is our underlying belief that every child should experience a broad and rich Geography curriculum, to experience success, allowing them to fully appreciate the local, national and international area. They are able to foster an enquiry based approach, allowing the children to ask and answer their own questions and to strive for excellence. As part of this, we believe that the children should trust the experiences they have, the knowledge they are developing and to be able to articulate this to the school and wider community.
Our Geography curriculum is based on the National Curriculum, and meets the needs of all children within our school regardless of their starting point and/or academic ability. It is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand experiences, and celebrate excellence and unique talents within geography. Our Geography curriculum teaches knowledge, concepts and skills whilst exposing the children to a wide and diverse range of geographical aspects. It recognises that every child is an individual with a unique potential for learning.
Geography Whole School Overview
Geography vocabulary & Key Knowledge
To enable all children access to our Geography curriculum, we have:
- A carefully structured curriculum, which contextualises the learning for the children.
- A process of utilising flashbacks to revisit prior learning and to address any misconceptions.
- Well considered educational visits, in different year groups, to allow the children to experience geographical locations and activities.
- Considered curriculum adaptations, that allow children to achieve from their individual starting points.
Entitlement and Enrichment–
As part of our Geography curriculum offer, children will explore and celebrate their Geographical skills and knowledge through exciting and creative opportunities such as:
- Trips and other immersive experiences related to their learning. For example, a visit to Red Hill common in Year 1 with follow-up map skills work.
- Creative home-learning tasks which allow children to apply their knowledge of Geography to creative tasks, such as creating their own enquiry questions to research in Year 4 and Year 3.
- Weaving their knowledge of Geography into their writing projects as part of our Integrated Curriculum which gives children the opportunity to show their learning through non-chronological reports, fact files, letter writing and creative writing tasks.
Breadth and Balance – progression of knowledge and skills –
As children progress through the Geography curriculum here at Hill View, links will be made between the knowledge (substantive knowledge) and skills (disciplinary knowledge) that they cover. Children will be encouraged to recall what they have previously learnt through explicit retrieval tasks at the beginning of each Geography lesson.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
In the EYFS, Geography is included within the Understanding the World area of learning. As with other learning in Foundation, your child will mainly learn about Geography through games, play, exploration and discussions.
Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) and Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)
The content of Geography teaching and learning is set out in the 2014 National Curriculum for primary schools in England. Here at Hill View Primary, we cover all areas of the National curriculum thoroughly, ensuring that your child experiences the full range of Geographical knowledge and skills intended. Certain skills and knowledge are covered and also repeated across year groups, meaning that children may revisit a particular area of knowledge, or skills, in another year of primary school. We revisit these skills each year in their Geography projects, to ensure that children remember, long-term, the knowledge and skills they are learning. Learning in each year group develops with increasing difficulty and with different foci each time.
Teaching Narrative
As Geographers, our children learn to be curious and fascinated about the world around them. Children will learn Geography, and recap previous Geography learning, in the Autumn, Spring and Summer term each year. The units they cover in each year group will be linked to a project, or taught discretely. Children are taught and encouraged to pose questions and think about themselves as ‘geographers in training’, to develop their knowledge and skills in Geography. The children enjoy an engaging curriculum but with academic rigour which focuses on children knowing and remembering more, in order for them to build upon their previous knowledge to make links and deepen their understanding.
Our curriculum has been developed by experienced, qualified teachers and this is constantly being tweaked, developed and built upon to provide excellent provision. Our pupil voice interviews tell us that all children at Hill View love the chance to learn through finding things out for themselves and guiding their own learning at times — the perfect way to understand the world around them. Children will develop their spirituality, thinking, collaboration, emotional intelligence, creativity and independence throughout their Geography learning, and all learning at Hill View.
Assessment and Outcomes –
Our children’s Geographical skills and knowledge are continuously assessed through professional observation of class and peer discussions and written work in books, supported by teacher-student dialogue and children’s submission of home learning projects. Alongside this, teachers’ summative assessment is guided through the use end-of-unit opportunities for children to ‘make their learning visible’, where they are asked to represent their learning using words and pictures at the end of their learning. In short, teachers use a holistic approach to assessment to help determine what a child’s understanding is. Pupils are frequently asked questions about their learning and understanding of the topic they are studying.
They are also asked their opinion on what helps them learn Geography and what connections they have made throughout the Geography topics, through our pupil voice interviews. Pupils are reminded and questioned regularly on previous learning in previous year groups, and what skills and knowledge they have remembered and learnt long-term.
At Hill View, we ensure that our children can articulate what Geography is and why it is important, and more specifically what they have been learning during a Geography project.
Resources
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects
An educational website with information, videos and interactive quizzes.
www.seterra.com
Map quizzes and games. Available in 36 different languages!
World Geography Games
Geography games for children about maps and continents, countries, states, capital cities, flags.