Geography

Subject Leader - Mr Bolton

Intent Statement

At St. Pius X we believe in a broad and balanced curriculum. Our ambitious geography curriculum fulfils the National Curriculum requirements and we use the Kapow Primary scheme of work as a tool to help us deliver the objectives. The scheme of work is coherently planned, sequenced and has rigorous progression to enable children to reach their full potential as geographers and gain the knowledge and skills required through an enquiry based learning approach to allow pupils to succeed in life. Our skills progression allows teaching and learning of geography to be easily adapted to meet the needs of all our pupils. Geography has meaningful links to other subjects such as RE, history, PE, and art and design, science as well as our local area. As a Catholic school our faith underpins our key teachings and pupils learn the importance of caring for and appreciating God's world, including our local area. Our core Gospel Values are golden threads of our geography scheme: we aim to develop the children’s love the world around them, teach children the importance of service by being God's stewards of the earth and highlight the significance of justice through enquiries such as fair trade. This approach helps to expand our pupils social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. Our geography curriculum not only develops our pupils educationally, but we plan in experiences to develop our children's cultural capital such as trips and residentials to Manchester, Coniston and London, as well as trips to our local area including the woodland trust's How Tun Woods as well as visiting local beaches, as we are lucky to be located near the coast.

Long Term Plan

National Curriculum Coverage

Progression

Knowledge and Skills Progression

The progression documents below designed to clearly highlight the following:

• Exactly what the pupils are going to know at the end of the enquiry;
• The disciplinary thinking skills of the subject that they are going to apply in order to understand the significance of that knowledge;
• End points of learning that make clear the level of understanding necessary for a child at this stage of learning to be judged through assessment as making good progress;
• How new learning is built upon the continuity of previous knowledge and understanding so references and links can be made to prior learning where relevant;
• The particular subject techniques and/or sources that will be mastered and applied to help build knowledge and understanding;
• How the National Curriculum programmes of study are being delivered;
• A statement on SEND informed by our SEND policy and provision.

 Knowledge, Skills and Questions

EYFS

KS1 and 2

Knowledge Organisers

Our Knowledge Organisers (see examples below) function as an enquiry ‘place map’ and are referred to regularly in class.  The Knowledge Organisers make it crystal clear to the pupil what they key knowledge they will learn by the end of the enquiry, the vocabulary they will learn, as well as a range of other relevant material they will come across and other things they will do e.g. ‘places I will visit’, ‘people I will know more about’ etc. 

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Vocabulary

Each enquiry in Kapow Primary includes key vocabulary (examples on Knowledge Organisers above). We sometimes teach discrete vocabulary using 'vocabulary word maps’ or ‘vocabulary word boxes’. Formats can be seen below.

Assessment

At the end of each enquiry, staff assess each child against the Key Concepts and Questions document, which is derived directly from the National Curriculum. Outcomes are then recorded using Insight.

Teachers use formative assessment throughout the enquiry, drawing on evidence from pupils’ books as well as responses gathered through Socrative. This ongoing assessment informs a termly summative judgement, which is also recorded on Insight.

Any gaps in knowledge are identified through the timetabled Socrative sessions. These gaps are then addressed during retrieval sessions, where teaching is adapted to reinforce and secure pupils’ understanding.

Enrichment & Cultural Capital

We aim to constantly improve our enrichment and cultural capital offering in Geography. Currently, the the subject is enhanced by the following:

• A number of cross-curricular opportunities particularly in PE and History
• Travel on local transport, visiting different areas of our town
• Family events in the local area during evening and weekends (Movember: Dads and Lads walk, Easter parade to church, Family Fun at How Tun Woods, run in the local park (5k) for dementia, etc)
• Newsletter Challenges that involve tracking your route on a map
• Orienteering Club & Competitions
• Laudato Si Club
• Access to maps and globes throughout the learning environment - physical and digital (indoor and outdoor)
• National Bird Watching Week
• Forest Schools (EYFS)
• Journey Sticks (EYFS)
• Termly Seasonal Walks in How Tun Woods (EYFS & KS1)
• Visits to Local Area (How Tun Wood, Slag Bank, Barrow Park, Furness Abbey, Amphitheatre, Beach)
• London: London Eye
• London: Walk around the Central London (guided tour)