Geography

Back

Geography Intent

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 Geography 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.

​​​​​​​

In School Resources

In order to allow the children to access the world in which they live, in geography they are given the opportunity to use high quality resources.  Each classroom displays a map, relevant to the age of the children.  The children have the opportunities to use globes, atlases and compasses.  In addition to this, we have access to an online mapping service called Digimaps, which supports the cross-curricular teaching of geography, Maths, English, and history.  Digimaps allows the children to access their local area as well as the wider world.

 

Visits and Visitors

In geography, we feel it is crucial for the children to access their local area wherever possible.  We understand that the concept of the world as a whole is a very difficult one for the children to grasp and therefore links within their local area are made, where it is relevant.  For example, when studying rivers, the children in Year 4 focus on the River Wear, which runs through Washington before making comparisons to other rivers.

 

Geography at Home

Here are some ideas to help support your child’s geography learning at home:

• On any journey, name features of local human and physical geography as you pass them – such as the River Wear, North Sea, Northern Spire or Stadium of Light.

On longer trips, plan the journey together with a map and follow it as you go – pointing out interesting things you expect to see on the journey.

• If you visit a new place, how is it the same and different from where you live?

• If you have a favourite sports star, what was it like where they grew up? Could you research those places?

• For KS2 children, taking an interest in news items really helps understanding how geography affects people’s lives – particularly in areas such as climate change and sustainability.

 

Websites 

Below are some websites which can support your child’s geography learning at home:

World geography for kids | National Geographic Kids (natgeokids.com)

Geography for Kids | What is Geography? | Geography Facts for Kids (kids-world-travel-guide.com)

https://globle-game.com/ (guess the mystery country using the fewest number of guesses)

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/ (A geographical version of the wordle game – identify the outline of the country in 6 guesses or less)

https://www.seterra.com/ (includes fun quizzes that help familiarize you with countries, capital cities, flags, rivers, lakes, and notable geological features)

Intent

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 Geography 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.

Implementation

Geography is one of our driver subjects within school and the Geography Long Term Plan follows the National Curriculum. The Long Term Plan incorporates elements of the Focus Education Challenge Curriculum, which has been adapted to ensure it is bespoke for our pupils and includes local geography, and a skills document developed by school, which identifies key skills and knowledge we want pupils to develop, learn and remember.

Geography is taught each term in all year groups. Sessions vary in length for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

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.

Within each class there will be an age appropriate map and a memory wall which will include key aspects of previous units taught. For Challenge units, knowledge mats are used and are available each lesson. There will also be opportunities for pupils to have visits and/or visitors linked to their Geography Curriculum.

Assessment will take place across lessons, at the end of each unit and across the school year. Each geography lesson will begin with a geographical starter, which will be used either as retrieval practice or skills 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.

Impact

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 manager and senior leaders will use lesson visits, work scrutinies and pupil voice activities across the year.