Geography
Geography Intent
At Walworth School our aim is to ‘significantly improve the quality of all our children’s lives’ delivering a rich and varied curriculum.
At Walworth School our main intention is for our pupils to be fully prepared for the next stages in and for future life by having;
- An awareness of how to be a successful learner
- The appropriate knowledge and skills to develop independence
- A good understanding of being a responsible citizen
We aim to achieve this by providing a geography curriculum that is committed to meeting the requirements of the primary National Curriculum whilst recognising the need to develop our children in the curriculum drivers we have identified:
- Knowledge and skills
- Emotional awareness
- Citizenship
- Independence
- Life experiences and Understanding
Our curriculum drivers shape our curriculum breadth. They have been developed from an exploration of the backgrounds of our pupils, our beliefs about high-quality education and our values. They are used to ensure we give our pupils appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities. We recognise that many of our children have had limited exposure to the world around them. We therefore plan to offer them wide geographical opportunities to develop their cultural capital. Cultural capital gives our pupils the vital background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community who understand and believe in British values. This has a direct impact on ensuring that our children are prepared for adulthood. It gives them an understanding of how Geography contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
The Geography curriculum is a well-planned and coherent curriculum. It recognises a child’s prior learning and builds upon this. The curriculum plan has been developed in accordance with the National Curriculum and with the guidance and support of Durham Humanities team. At Walworth School we place mental health and wellbeing at the centre of school life our vision is that pupils can ‘Listen, Learn and Be Happy Together’. We wish pupils to acquire skills for life, so that they have an understanding of a range of places, people, resources and natural and human environments together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. The curriculum also makes suggestions to give geography a local flavour by studying the geography of County Durham. At Walworth Primary School our aim is for children to have positive experiences of education at school. We want children to engage in learning and for them to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We want to develop the children to become geographers.
Geography Implementation
At Walworth Primary School the Geography Curriculum has been carefully planned to provide breadth, balance and continuity. It was designed after consultation with staff in line with the National Curriculum and with the advice from Durham County Council Education Development Service. It is a clearly sequenced curriculum which is well understood by the whole staff team.
Learning is planned around and implemented through the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum on a two-year curriculum cycle that allows for regular revisiting and reinforcement of the curriculum content at a differentiated level. There are a range of lessons for each year group with a clear learning intent. The plans include a rationale and how they link to prior knowledge. It gives guidance to the geographical knowledge pupils are to acquire; understanding of similarities and differences, use of geographical information; fieldwork and geographical skills and geographical communication. It gives advice on possible misconceptions and key vocabulary to use. Within this, the vocabulary and key skills being used in the lessons are identified to ensure children understand which lessons they are working on. We use a planned timetable to enable children to become immersed in their learning for the half term geography is being taught. To aid teachers in their subject knowledge all medium term plans contains knowledge notes.
Geography Impact
At Walworth Primary School the geography curriculum is a clearly sequenced and well planned curriculum. This results in fun, engaging and high quality geographical education. It gives opportunities for memory recall and long term learning by revisiting prior learning regularly. The quality of children’s learning is evident in work in geography books, photos of visits and of talking to the children. Lessons are designed to give pupils a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain and that of the wider world. By focusing on first order concepts such as thinking critically and evaluating and challenging views it will equip pupils for further learning for example in secondary school or the future workplace.
We track progress over time to evaluate the impact of our practice. This means that we look at the practices taking place to determine whether they are appropriate, related to our goals and likely to produce results in the long run. We use lesson observations to see if the pedagogical style (from direct instruction to discovery learning) matches our depth expectations.
Formative assessment is used to help teachers plan progression and meet the individual needs of children. Teachers also use an assessment tracking tool to help evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum. This relates to the National Curriculum Programme of Study for Geography. This in conjunction with work samples and lesson observations will enable the subject lead to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum.
