In line with the EYFS and the National Curriculum, at Great Rollright, we aim for a high quality geography curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its peoples. Our teaching equips pupils with knowledge about: places and people; resources in the environment; physical and human processes; formation and use of landscapes. We also want children to develop geographical skills: collecting and analysing data; using maps, globes, aerial photographs, and digital mapping to name and identify countries, continents and oceans; and communicating information in a variety of ways. We want children to enjoy and love learning about geography by gaining knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits.   Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops and understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. 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; to 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.

In the EYFS the children explore geographical themes and content through the Understanding of the World strand of the EYFS curriculum which is delivered through the topics we cover. This involves guiding the children to develop sense of their physical world, as well as their community, through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.  We use or Forest School lessons to foster this learning through regular interaction with the natural environment.

In Years 1-6, geography is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning. Units have been carefully planned to ensure that key aspects are revisited and built upon throughout their geography learning journey through the school. Our geography curriculum is carefully planned to take into consideration the strands of locational knowledge, place knowledge, human geography, physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork. We have ensured that all of these strands have been covered more than once through various different topics, making best use of thematic links where appropriate. The areas we plan to study have been placed onto a world map to ensure we have a balanced coverage of locations. We have identified the key knowledge, vocabulary and skills of each blocked topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression of these across topics throughout each year group across the school. In designing our curriculum, the focus of our geography topics progress from local areas to global perspectives. The local area is fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.

Teachers at Great Rollright continuously monitor the impact of the Geography curriculum, and whether the work pupils do over time matches the intended curriculum. We use the benchmark of our clearly sequenced curriculum to evaluate whether what we want our pupils to know and do well are evident in their outcomes in daily lessons and end of unit outcomes. Outcomes of this continuous process are recorded as evidence which is used by Teachers to evaluate the implementation of the curriculum and adjust sequences of work accordingly.
As a church school, we also evaluate whether pupils are demonstrating our core spiritual and moral values by their attitudes and behaviour in Geography lessons.  We triangulate evidence to ensure are pupils have a love for learning by demonstrating a concern for sustainable practices and appreciation for the beauty of natural and human environments.  That they exhibit respect by recognising the significance of local and global environments, and that they learn that people across the world have differences through their cultures, traditions, and beliefs which should be treated with dignity.  That they are able to demonstrate courage by asking and answering challenging questions about controversial issues such as deforestation, global inequality, or migration.  That they are truthful and show an insight into the different forms of evidence to learn about the world including acknowledging when information is uncertain, biased, or incomplete.

Long Term Planning

Progression of Skills

Whole School Geography Skills Progression