Geography Intent

At Wentworth School in geography through our project based curriculum we aim to cover the requirements of the National Curriculum; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of geographical concepts, knowledge and skills. Our projects are drivers for the children to develop a love for geography to increase children’s knowledge of the world to open up new horizons beyond each child’s personal experience and provoke them to ask questions about the natural and human environment. We seek to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people instilling the values of respect and responsibility; to deepen their knowledge and understanding about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human geographical features; to develop a sound understanding of the Earth's key physical and human processes. We develop core geographical skills which are built into projects enabling pupils to use a range of data and sources to deepen their understanding which they can communicate clearly. As learners progress , their growing knowledge about the world will help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, of the formation and use of landscapes and environments and how these are interconnected and change overtime.

Implementation

Our teachers are enthusiastic about Geography and promote a positive attitude towards exploring and understanding the world around us. Our whole school approach to teaching this subject includes teaching through projects that will motivate, interest and inspire our learners. Our planning and delivery of engaging lessons use high quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge and skills which are built upon from previous learning. We provide opportunities to encourage and enable learners to acquire and practise skills, explore and find out for themselves. Children access outdoor learning, fieldwork and educational visits in order to explore and understand their local surroundings and beyond. We also take full advantage of our locality, providing extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom and through our citizen ‘Tribes’. Through referencing our carefully designed pathways, we undertake rigorous and effective formative assessment and feedback to inform future learning.

We enable the children to explore key knowledge and skills, including physical and human geography along with fieldwork, techniques and analysing through interweaving geography through our project-based learning. The geography lead and class teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each project and consideration has been made when creating our geography pathway to ensure the progression of skills across each year group in school. By the end of Ks2, our children will have a plethora of geographical knowledge:

• Knowledge of the Earth’s physical and human processes
• Knowledge of people, places, resources, natural and human environments
• Knowledge of their location in relation to the wider world
• Be able to question, analyse and explain findings
• Carry out fieldwork and other techniques
• Express balanced views about current issues in society and globally

Impact

Through our progressive knowledge, skills and vocabulary based approach within each project we enable children to be motivated and excited to discover and explore the world around and beyond. Outdoor learning and educational trips enable our children to widen their experiences, knowledge and understanding of geography. Outcomes in folders and on display, evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of key knowledge as well as embedding reflective and evaluative skills for next steps.

Assessment

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing children's understanding of project linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught
• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning
• Using dialogic learning tasks to assess children's understanding
• Images and videos of the children's practical learning
• Interviewing pupil about their learning (pupil voice)
• Moderation staff meetings where pupil books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class's work
• External moderation of children's work through links within our MAT
• Learning walks and reflective staff feedback
• Presentation of work through Fabulous Finish Exhibitions.