Freemantle

Church of England Community Academy Trust

Geography

Intent

Geography is a valued part of our curriculum at Freemantle, providing a purposeful means for exploring, appreciating and understanding the world in which we live and how it has evolved. It is our intent for the Geography element of our school curriculum to inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We believe geography teaching should equip our pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world will help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. By revisiting these areas of learning regularly children will remember more, know more and understand more. We want our children to gain confidence and have practical experiences of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Implementation

At Freemantle, our Geography curriculum is planned in line with the knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum throughout KS1 and KS2. Our Early Years classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. 'Understanding the World' involves guiding children 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 KS1 and KS2, we follow a theme-led approach to our curriculum in which cross-curricular links are planned. Each unit carefully develops the skills and knowledge necessary for subsequent learning and is designed to be exciting and engaging for that particular year group.

Impact

The children will achieve age related expectations in Geography at the end of their cohort year. They will retain knowledge that is pertinent to geography with a real-life context and understand the ‘big idea’. The children will understand how geography ‘happens’ in their local area, as well as having a good understanding about the world around them and how it has been shaped. Children will work collaboratively to solve problems and explain the processes that they have taken/observed within a real-life context. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Assessing children’s understanding of theme linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
Assessment of pupil discussions about their learning within lessons.
Quizzes and use of Knowledge Organisers
Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).

Progression of Skills and Knowledge