Intent
At Starcross Primary School, we want all pupils, regardless of need or barrier, to develop a passion for learning about the world around them, from where they live and the context of the local area, through to sustainability, and how we need to protect our planet for generations to come.
We endeavour to instill in our pupils a fascination and curiosity about the Earth and how places are similar and different. Our aim is that children learn about how landscapes and environments are formed over time. Through our Geography curriculum, we strive to develop our pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills by exploring a wide range of places in different ways.
We value opportunities to learn outside the classroom, and our pupils take part in Outdoor Learning; visits to cities like London, Bristol and Exeter and local fieldwork studies, such as the estuary and the local coastline, where they learn about our immediate surroundings. We also take advantage of living in close proximity to Dartmoor National Park where children go for their Year 3 and 4 residential, allowing them to experience and explore this natural landscape in depth.
Through a rich use of geographical vocabulary, and building from prior knowledge with a progressive curriculum, we aim to develop geographers who will be motivated, communicative and eager to find out more.
Implementation
At Starcross Primary School, Geography is taught in project blocks throughout the year as well as a focus week during the Autumn Term, so that children can achieve depth in their learning and progressively build their knowledge and skills throughout their time with us.
In EYFS, Geography is an integral part of topic work covered. The objectives are all about understanding the world through activities such as finding out about different places, habitats and exploring and investigating their locality.
Across KS1, the children investigate their local area and contrast the United Kingdom with a non-European country (South Africa). This will involve using maps and atlases as well as digital resources such as Google Earth and Maps. They find out about the physical and human features of both areas and begin to develop their subject-specific vocabulary and knowledge of the four main compass points. They also start to learn about the wider world, including the continents and the oceans.
Across KS2, the children extend their knowledge and understanding further, travelling outside of their local area to include the whole of the UK and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of some of the major physical and human features. They will continue to learn the skills needed to be a geographer developing their knowledge of places around the world. All children will continue to expand their skills in local knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, geographical skills and fieldwork. Through revisiting and consolidating skills, children build on prior knowledge alongside introducing new skills and challenges. During their time at Starcross, all children have a range of opportunities to experience Geography through practical engaging tasks beyond the classroom. Lyfta is used to supplement the children’s learning by immersing them in the life of an individual in the area that they are studying.
Impact
By the time our children leave Starcross, they will use geographical vocabulary accurately; understand the different strands of Geography, with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes; begin to make relevant links from Geography to other curriculum subjects, such as History and Science; improve their enquiry skills about the world around them, and their impact on the world; realise that they have choices to make in the world, developing a positive commitment to the environment and the future of the planet; become competent in collecting, analysing and communicating a range of data gathered; be able to interpret a range of sources of geographical information; communicate geographical information in a variety of ways and be able to speak confidently about their geography learning, skills and knowledge.’
