Geography
Geography at Warren Dell Primary School
Intent, Implementation, and Impact
Intent
At Warren Dell Primary School, our high-quality geography education aims to cultivate a lifelong curiosity and appreciation for the world and its people. Geography is guided by the fundamental principle of expanding children's understanding of the world as they progress through their education.
The main principles that underpin the teaching of Geography at Warren Dell School are:
- Adherence to the National Curriculum – Ensuring alignment with national educational standards and learning objectives.
- Exploration of new places and settlements – Encouraging curiosity and understanding of diverse geographical locations and human settlements.
- Aspirational and child-friendly approach – Inspiring students through engaging, age-appropriate, and ambitious learning experiences.
- Integration of local connections – Incorporating local geographical features and community links to enhance relevance and understanding.
- Engagement with contemporary issues – Addressing current global and environmental challenges to develop informed and responsible citizens.
Our Aims in the Teaching of Geography:
- Develop transferable knowledge and skills that support learning across the curriculum and contribute to children's spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development.
- Inspire curiosity and a lasting fascination with the world and its people, fostering a lifelong interest in geography.
- Promote a deep understanding of diverse places, people, resources, and environments, as well as the key physical and human processes shaping the Earth.
- Embed vocabulary at the heart of the Geography curriculum, ensuring language development supports geographical understanding.
- Enable children to articulate and write about their geographical knowledge through the use of Tier 2 vocabulary.
- Ensure a clear sequence of learning, allowing knowledge to build progressively.
- Provide experiences that enhance cultural capital and present meaningful challenges, fostering inclusion, attainment, and progress.
- Support knowledge retrieval by ensuring children use accurate subject-specific (Tier 3) vocabulary and apply their learning in new contexts.
- Ensure children make progress in every lesson, with structured opportunities for development.
- Offer appropriate levels of challenge for all learners, fostering ambition, ensuring strong attainment and progress, and deepening knowledge through higher-order thinking where suitable.
- Implement a consistent multi-sensory approach to support knowledge retention and skill application.
- Develop children as active learners in Geography, encouraging engagement and exploration.
- Raise aspirations by broadening children's understanding of the world and their place within it.
- Use Geography learning as a means for wider enrichment, incorporating fieldwork, local trips, and real-world experiences.
Implementation
Geography at Warren Dell Primary School is taught through a well-sequenced curriculum that builds upon prior learning and develops a progressive depth of understanding. Our approach includes:
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
- Geography in EYFS is integrated into the Understanding the World area of learning. Understanding the world involves guiding children to explore the natural world around them.
- Children explore the world through play-based experiences, hands-on investigations, and questioning.
- Outdoor learning plays a key role, allowing children to investigate nature, explore habitats, and engage in sensory experiences.
- Activities include visiting parks, farms and museums, exploring materials, understanding seasonal changes, and developing a sense of awe and wonder about the world.
- Activities are structured to make children aware of different countries in the world and recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
- Opportunities are provided for children to explore maps and draw simple maps of their immediate surroundings.
Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
- Geography is taught weekly, ensuring a balance of knowledge acquisition and investigative skills.
- Lessons follow a structured progression, aligning with the National Curriculum and ensuring knowledge and skills build over time.
- A strong emphasis is placed on ‘Geographical Enquiry Skills’, ensuring pupils develop enquiry skills such as asking questions, using 8 points of a compass and grid references, using geographical tools, using maps and photographs to find places, recording information, observing and measuring and sketching maps and plans – this is clearly identified in each lesson
- Start of each geography unit incorporates a reference to careers in geography, ensuring that pupils understand the subject's relevance to essential life skills and future career pathways.
- ‘Remembering more’, is a start to each lesson, ensuring previous learning has been embedded
- Cross-curricular links help deepen understanding; for example, using maths for data collection (fieldwork), English for reporting, and computing for research.
- Use of high-quality resources and outdoor learning enhances engagement, including our school garden and local parks.
Inclusivity and Challenge
- Differentiation ensures that all pupils, including those with SEND and EAL, can access and succeed in Geography lessons.
- Greater depth challenges are embedded to stretch high-attaining pupils through opportunities for independent enquiry.
Impact
The effectiveness of our Geography curriculum is reflected in the enthusiasm, engagement, and academic progress of our pupils. We assess this impact through the following methods:
· Pupil Voice: Pupils confidently articulate their learning, demonstrate enthusiasm for geography, use subject-specific vocabulary to explain key concepts, and discuss careers linked to the subject.
· Assessment for Learning: Teachers use formative assessment strategies, such as questioning, discussions, and mini plenaries, to monitor understanding and adapt teaching accordingly.
· Summative Assessments: Pupils complete a circle map at the beginning and end of each unit, providing a clear measure of their progress in geographical knowledge and skills.
· Book Looks and Learning Walks: Geography books and working wall displays in classrooms demonstrate a structured progression in knowledge, skills, and enquiry methods.
· End of Key Stage Outcomes: Pupils leave Warren Dell with a secure foundation in geographical knowledge and skills, fully prepared for the next stage of their education.
Through our Geography curriculum, pupils develop a lifelong passion for learning, a curiosity about the world, and confidence in their ability to investigate and analyse geographical issues. By the time they leave Warren Dell, they are well-equipped to continue their studies in secondary school and beyond, prepared to explore the world as informed, responsible, and inquisitive geographers of the future.