Intent - What do we intend children to learn through geography?

At Repton Primary School, we believe that Geography is an essential component of the curriculum as it seeks to educate children in the natural and human aspects of the world. Taking place in the Spring term, children will dedicate their topic learning to Geography. This enables children to have a deeper understanding of geographical knowledge and to allow the sequence of lessons to flow smoothly to create high-quality, progressive learning.  Geography is an investigative subject and we aim to inspire children by allowing them to delve into many aspects of Geography. Starting in Reception, children will be exposed to learning mapping skills, human features and physical features of their local environment, and then reflecting on how their environment compares to other environments in other regions on Earth. From Year 1 to Year 6, children will learn about a specific country in each year group, that matches with the subject content specified in the National Curriculum. Within each year group, children will learn about 6 key aspects of Geography; mapwork, physical geography, human geography, society and culture and history of the chosen country. Children will also reflect on all this learning and on their own locality and create a comparison study to highlight the diversity, differences and similarities between different natural and human environments.

Our Geography curriculum enables children to explore diverse, vast areas of the world by exploring the spiritual, moral, social, physical and cultural developments of those areas to deepen their understanding of the world. This curriculum also allows children to provide explanations for how interconnected Earth is, as this framework is consistent throughout school. Geographical knowledge and skills are carefully sequenced to ensure children are developing their skills for further education and beyond. We also aim to integrate the RPS values of ‘Respect’, ‘Pride’ and ‘Success’ into our Geography curriculum by posing challenging questions and giving children the chance to reflect on the values we instil in school, and how those values are present in communities in the world. We seek to develop children’s understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills through a carefully planned, engaging Geography curriculum that will prepare them for their future. 

Implementation - How do teach Geography at Repton Primary School?

Staff carefully sequence the learning to ensure the progression of knowledge, vocabulary, and skills as a geographer. Teachers from EYFS to Year 6 use the Progression of Skills document to help inform teachers of the necessary geographical skills that children need to acquire each year, which helps inform the planning and sequencing of lessons.  

In EYFS, children are provided with activities to help develop the ELG of Understanding the World.  Two ELGs to meet this area of development are learning about People Culture and Communities and the Natural World. Throughout the year, EYFS teachers will make references and get the children to explore their local environments by making maps, going on local walks to explore the community, and making observations of the world around them. In the Spring term, EYFS teachers will teach children about the cultural communities in the UK, but will also use non-fiction texts, stories, and other mediums to explore life in other countries. They will also use this to look at contrasting environments such as contrasting hot and cold environments and the similarities and differences between those environments. The skills and knowledge obtained in EYFS help prepare children for their learning in KS1.

At Repton Primary School, teachers in KS1 and KS2 teach geography by having a focus on a specific country. Throughout the Spring term, teachers plan lessons using the National Curriculum and the progression of skills document to deliver lessons about the country of choice. You can find the countries being studied for this year below;

Teachers sequence lessons by teaching lessons based on four main geographical concepts; physical geography, human geography, history and culture, and comparing and contrasting with the UK. Teachers plan lessons based around the countries specified above to allow children to engage in geographical inquiry into parts of the world they have probably not encountered before. Teachers focus on comparing the non-UK country with the UK, to allow children to make connections and comparisons between the countries.

For KS1 and KS2 children, all learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge through a ‘Flashback’. This will be presented to the children as a set of 3 questions, created by the teachers, to help children recall previous learning and make connections from prior learning. Staff will encourage discussions and will model subject-specific vocabulary to help children use appropriate vocabulary.

For KS1 and KS2 children, learning will be supported through the use of knowledge organisers that provide children with scaffolding that supports them in retaining new facts and vocabulary in their long-term memory. Knowledge organisers are used for pre-teaching, to help edit children’s vocabulary and spelling, and as part of daily reviews.

Teachers plan and provide a wide variety of activities to help children engage with their geography learning. Some year groups may take their children on local field trips to learn and explore their locality.

Learning walls in every classroom provide scaffolding for children. Pictures, vocabulary, key facts and questions, and model exemplars of the work being taught are displayed.

Assessment is used every few weeks to assess the children’s learning of the concept recently studied. Children have an assessment sheet displayed at the back of the books which have the 4 concepts displayed. Teachers will give time for children to independently draw/write about what they have learned about that specific part of geography after completing a sequence of lessons on a specific concept. This allows children to express what they have remembered, and inform the teacher of gaps to pick up on in future flashbacks or future learning. This assessment tool is differentiated based on the needs or age of the child.

At the end of teaching Geography in the Spring term, teachers use the information shown from the children’s assessment tool, and how children have performed against the lesson objectives for each lesson, to understand if children have met the appropriate National Curriculum objectives for their year. Teachers will populate the information against the KS1 and KS2 national curriculum using the school’s data tracker.