Geography
Intent
At St Swithun’s School, our Geography Curriculum Framework is designed to develop children’s curiosity about the world and its people and to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. As a framework, it aims 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. The Geography Curriculum Framework at St Swithun’s Primary School enables children to develop contextual knowledge, understanding, geographical enquiry and the application of skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas. We have designed our Geography framework so that children achieve this knowledge as they progress through the school and provide children with opportunities to ask perceptive questions and think critically.
We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Kennington and Oxford so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. We also aim to develop the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences.
Implementation
St Swithuns’s Geography Curriculum Framework allows our children to investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge, understanding and geographical enquiry of the earth’s physical and human processes. Children are able to learn not only about the world but also how it works, how it fits together and how to make a difference and become positive contributors to it.
Children’s locational knowledge, geographical enquiry and the application of fieldwork and mapping skills, will develop progressively as they move through the school so as to achieve a deeper appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context.
Throughout our Geography curriculum, children will explore progressive key concepts as they move through the school. Our framework is laid out in such a way that the children will initially learn about their immediate geographical location, that being their home, school and village as a starting block in EYFS which is built upon in Key Stage 1. As a child moves through our school, their world-knowledge, understanding and geographical enquiry will deepen due to foundations laid in the previous years. The concepts that children explore and the geographical skills that they learn are revisited in different units, allowing children to consolidate prior knowledge with new concepts so as to prepare them for future learning.
Each year group has a long-term plan with two to three Geography topics which are to be covered over the academic year. Geography will be linked into some History topics, where appropriate, in order to broaden and develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Impact
By the time pupils leave St.Swithun’s Primary School they will:
- Have a genuine interest in Geography, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
- Have a good knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
- Have an understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
- Have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
- Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop reasoned arguments to explain findings.
- Have highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
- Have the ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.
