Geography

At Oxclose Primary Academy we believe that pupils should be given the opportunity to develop geographical skills whilst deepening their knowledge about the world they live in.  Across their time in primary school, we want pupils to have the opportunity to learn about their local area, geographical features of countries/areas of the world and geographical concepts, such as the water cycle, volcanoes and earthquakes.

We feel that it is important for pupils to have the opportunity to develop skills both using concrete resources within the class and through outdoor geographical experiences.  Across both key stages, it is important that pupils are able to improve their knowledge across the key geographical areas of locational and place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork.

We believe that by allowing our pupils to gain these skills and deepen their knowledge it will help them throughout the rest of their lives.

Geography is one of our driver subjects within school and the Geography Long Term Plan follows the National Curriculum.  Medium Term Plans have been written by the subject leader ensuring they include local geography.  Each Medium-Term Plan starts with a key question to support pupils in developing their enquiry skills.

There are 3 termly units for each year group and lessons are taught weekly.   Across Key Stage 1 and 2, the National Curriculum identities four main strands of Geographical knowledge; Locational Knowledge, Place Knowledge, Human and Physical Geography and Geographical Skills and Fieldwork.  These elements are taught across both Key Stage 1 and 2 and are planned for progression.

Within the Geography curriculum, we aim to develop both substantive knowledge (locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical processes and geographical skills) and disciplinary knowledge (how geographers think and interact with these key ideas). Sticky knowledge is identified for each unit of work, this is the knowledge we want pupils to be able to know, and remember, both during the teaching of the unit and after. 

When mapping the curriculum for place knowledge, we focus on branching out.  In Early Years we look at the geography of their classroom, this is extended if/when pupils’ interest is focused on the local area; this develops to the local area in Y1; The United Kingdom in Y2, counties of the UK in Y3, Europe in Y4, North and South America in Y5 and the World in Y6. This helps the pupils to develop a sense of place.

Assessment will take place across lessons, at the end of each unit and across the school year.  Each geography lesson will begin with an Oxclose Memory Grid starter (OMG), which will be used as retrieval practice.  Pupils will be expected to be able to recall key sticky knowledge both within the teaching sequence and after the unit has been covered.  Pupils will also complete activities to identify what they now know that they didn’t know previously.

Pupils will be able to confidently discuss, and demonstrate all aspects of the geography curriculum that they have been covering and will show appropriate key geographical skills.  They will have knowledge of locational and place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork.  Pupils will be able to retain the knowledge, even after the unit they have been covering.  Key sticky knowledge from across the unit will be retained. 

To enable us to measure the impact, the subject leader and senior leaders will use lesson visits, work scrutinies and pupil voice activities across the year.