Intent

At Honilands Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to important questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. We pride ourselves on our creative learning environment and classroom displays. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. 

A high-quality geography education inspires curiosity and fascination with the world and its people that will last a lifetime. Pupils will gain knowledge of diverse places, people, resources, and natural and human environments, along with a deep understanding of Earth’s key physical and human processes. Their growing knowledge of the world will help them deepen their understanding of the interplay between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. 

Geography helps pupils to understand the complexity of our planet Earth, and the main concepts of Geography: 1. Place and Space; 2. Scale; 3. Physical and Human Processes; 4. Environmental Interaction and Sustainable Development; 5. Cultural Understanding and Diversity.

‘Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features and different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.’ (National Curriculum 2013).

Implementation

At Honilands, we follow the National Curriculum framework for the teaching of Geography, and children learn through a focus on key geographical concepts of:

• Locational knowledge  
• Human and Physical Geography
• Skills and fieldwork

We use the Opening Worlds Curriculum to guide our planning due to its focus on developing both substantive and disciplinary knowledge in equal measure. The curriculum is ambitious in its scope (meeting and exceeding the demands of the National Curriculum), meticulous in rigour (responsive to up-date scholarship in Geography), highly coherent (intricate links have been built within and across subjects so that nothing sits in isolation) and carefully sequenced (so that pupils’ ability to build a comparison and reach a critical judgement).

Teaching and Learning 

• The school’s curriculum maps show the units to be covered each term, which, over each Key stage, will include: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, and geographical skills and fieldwork.
• There is a unit plan for each unit of work
• Plans are adapted to ensure all pupils can access the content and deepen their knowledge and skills.
• Flexible groupings are used during lessons, including ability and mixed-ability groups, paired work, guided and independent work, and whole-class work.
• PowerPoints/planning are annotated and adapted to support children with SEND, lower-attaining learners, and those new to English, improving access to the content. 
• Opportunities to develop core literacy skills are developed through geographical enquiries and the learning of new and key vocabulary.
• Relevant vocabulary is explicitly taught, evident in the classroom and used in discussion and reasoning.
• A range of resources (primary and secondary) is used to enhance learning, including using a variety of maps, atlases, globes, watching videos and reading information texts. These include: matching vocabulary words; filling in the gap; completing the sentence; true or false sentences; information files; map interpreting and sketching; using sentence starters to accommodate and express opinions; open-ended questions; and reading, affirming, questioning and debating are among the most common activities we will tend to use in our geography teaching and learning
•  Individual pupil books are used to record pupils' Geography learning.

During Foundation Stage 

‘Understanding the World’ involves guiding pupils to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment in which they live.  

‘People and Communities’ involves pupils discussing the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make simple maps and are taught how to use positional language. The children observe the different seasons and use associated language to describe the weather. They observe animals and plants in their environments, explain why some things occur, and discuss changes.

During Key Stage 1 

In Key Stage 1, pupils will develop their knowledge about the United Kingdom and their own locality. They will learn to use maps, atlases, and globes, as well as basic compass directions. The pupils will also study the continents, seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and look at the hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the equator and the North and South Poles. They will learn about the continents and the most notorious cultural elements in each of them. A non-European country will be studied to contrast with a region of the United Kingdom. In addition, students will begin to see the human use and impact on the landscape through the study of medieval castles and cities in the United Kingdom and Europe, which will also prepare them to better understand the more developed human geography in KS2, with clear historical links. Pupils in KS1 will be taught how to use geographical vocabulary and complete fieldwork.

During Key Stage 2 

In Key Stage 2, the pupils will look to extend their knowledge beyond their local area to clearly locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom. They will study Europe in depth (including Russia) and North and South America, and identify the positions and significance of the lines of longitude and latitude. They will examine similarities and differences in human geography, such as types of settlement and land use, and contrast areas and their inhabitants. 

Across the Key Stage, pupils will also study physical geography elements such as climate zones, biomes, vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and the water cycle. Pupils will continue to use maps, atlases and globes and will use the eight points of the compass in their work. They will use four and six-figure grid references and Ordnance Survey maps. They will refine their fieldwork skills and work with charts, statistics, and data, and will be able to present their findings through oral and written communication.

Impact

How do we assess Geography?

At Honilands, we use a range of formative and summative techniques to assess pupils' progress and attainment. Pupils’ participation in class, evidence in books, quizzes and teachers' observations are all used to support assessment, including:

• Oral feedback is to be used to improve pupils' work throughout each lesson.
• Children may use a purple pen to signify responses to feedback.
• ‘Edit and Review’ to check spelling errors and other secretarial errors at the end of each lesson.
• Assessment for Learning is used within each lesson to establish next steps for pupils. 
• Low-stakes quizzes are used regularly to check pupil knowledge and retention.
• Short recaps of prior knowledge/ learning are used in each lesson to ensure the children have secure knowledge and understanding.
• End-of-unit assessments are used to summatively assess children’s learning and identify gaps and misconceptions to inform future planning.
• In EYFS, teachers and key workers make observations regarding the pupils’ development and use Tracking Grids to identify pupils’ attainment.