Geography
Geography
Intent:
At Folkestone Primary, the Geography curriculum is designed so that students develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Our teaching will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Within this, we commit ourselves to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area, but also investigating different countries from across the world. This allows the children to develop a sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes their local area unique.
Implementation:
Geography is taught as part of a half-termly (KS1) or termly topic (KS2), which progresses the children’s knowledge, and skills that are stated in the National Curriculum.
Pupils gain a secure knowledge of distance, orientation, scale and positioning systems, which begins in the early years. This gives them the framework they need to understand locational knowledge.
Children receive high quality Geography lessons that plan for progression and depth, concentrating on the geographical skills and knowledge suited to the age group.
Across the key stages, learning is frequently delivered using case study questions to allow pupils the opportunity to explore geographical concepts and areas in more depth.
Pupils are actively engaged in a range of field work opportunities across all topics which will bring the subject to life. Our location as a coastal town and our proximity to France raises fantastic learning opportunities for practical work and discussion based learning, allowing their learning to be applied to a real life context.
Extended writing opportunities are planned into the curriculum, which often draw on previous knowledge and evidence to support their answers.
Opportunities for children to be exposed to and use higher level vocabulary are mapped out and vocabulary is explicitly taught at the start of each lesson.
Impact:
Geography lessons regularly include recall activities which are often multiple choice, true/false, spot the mistake etc. giving pupils the opportunity to apply their knowledge. This also allows teachers to address gaps in understanding and misconceptions. Teachers recognise that progress in the subject is rarely linear, due to the cumulative nature of geography. Across the school, extended are frequently used as an assessment tool at the end of a unit of work, where children can write up answers to case studies and formalise their fieldwork findings. This assessment information flags areas where pupils have a secure knowledge and where they need some aspects to be retaught. If there are common issues, leaders review and adapt the curriculum.