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Geography

Intent

At Hartsfield, our Geography curriculum aims to equip children with an appreciation and understanding of their world, as well as their place in it and their responsibilities. Children will become confident geographers with a core knowledge and understanding of people, places, physical and human environments and the processes that create and affect them.

Our children will be engaged and supported to become inquisitive, resilient and independent learners.  They will be encouraged to be active global citizens who can ‘think like a geographer’ – using what they know from one context in another, thinking about shared human values and considering the influence they could have to create a better, more sustainable world in the future. Our pupils are encouraged to recognise that they have a voice and to use it confidently to debate topics that they feel passionate about.  We aim to produce well- rounded individuals by providing our children with opportunities to expand their cultural capital and experiences of the world, both inside and outside of the classroom.  They will have a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives, equipping them well for secondary education and beyond.

Implementation 

At Hartsfield, our curriculum follows the National Curriculum and the 2021 Statutory Framework for EYFS. We use Oddizzi (an online geography scheme for primary schools) to support teachers in the planning and delivery of lessons which challenge, engage and enthuse children about geography. The planning pathway provides schemes of work and resources for 2-3 units for each year group, and ensures breadth and coverage and a clear progression of geographical knowledge, skills and vocabulary from EYFS to Year 6. Additional resources are provided to develop teachers’ subject knowledge.

Learning progresses over time. In EYFS, children learn about similarities and differences between themselves and other people and communities; they know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things and talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.  In Year 1’s local area study, children learn basic geographical concepts, knowledge, vocabulary and skills through the concrete experience of a familiar place. This then allows them to make meaningful comparisons to Kampong Ayer in Brunei in Year 2. During Key Stage 2, this knowledge of places feeds into regional studies from the Americas, Europe and the UK. Knowledge becomes both broader and deeper as pupils progress and become familiar with an ever-wider range of places. This growing knowledge is also fed by the development of locational knowledge, geographical skills and a growing understanding of human and physical processes.