Our Christian Vision
St. Luke’s CE Primary school provides a journey to discover ‘life in all its fullness’. John 10:10. Where children flourish, are happy and succeed. Our distinct Christian values: friendship, love, trust, patience, forgiveness and respect are woven throughout the day, the learning, the gathering, the school.
Our theologically rooted Christian vision meets the specific needs of our school community we aim to remove barriers so that everyone can flourish and live life in its fullest. By the time our pupils leave Year 6 we hope to have removed barriers and enabled our them to grow in faith and recognise the wider world as they continue their journey
At St. Luke’s the children are at the heart of every decision we make to ensure that they are happy, confident and that the opportunities that are provided for them are relevant to their needs both now and in the future. We achieve this by providing an inspirational and creative curriculum, rich in opportunity and full of challenge.
EYFS and Key Stage 1 Geography Rationale
The EYFS and KS1 geography curriculum is knowledge rich, with topics designed to focus in on those key objectives needed in order to build the fundamental knowledge needed. The basic skills learnt through EY and KS1 are essential building blocks, ready for KS2 discrete lessons.
Geography in the Early Years is taught under the umbrella of ‘Understanding of the World’ from the EYFS. The children are supported in developing the knowledge, skills and understanding that helps them to make sense of the world. The pupils are encouraged to talk about where they live and what’s around them. They are beginning to gain knowledge and understanding of the world through:
- Photographs
- Listening to stories and memories of older people
- Role play activities
- Discussing various places, they have been to locally
- Discussing weather changes
In KS1, pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical Geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.
Key Stage 2 Geography Rationale
The KS2 geography curriculum is based on the only safe assumption that a teacher can make: that the pupil might go on to study the subject at university, require particular subject knowledge in their future career, or need particular subject knowledge or skills to enable them to be active members of society. As a result, the curriculum has been designed to be fit for that purpose. The geography curriculum incorporates fundamental geographical knowledge and skills, allowing pupils to build on a firm foundation in future years. An introduction to settlements, tectonic processes and hydrological and climatic processes introduces Year 3 pupils to concepts, vocabulary and knowledge that is capitalised on in subsequent years, laying important foundations of much of their future geographical learning. When pupils study Migration in Year 4, they will utilise their knowledge of settlement types in order to deepen their understanding of migration patterns. This knowledge and understanding support their comprehension of why communities develop around areas of rich natural resources, and how slums develop. The Natural Resources unit then feeds into the Year 5 unit on Energy and Sustainability, by supporting pupils’ understanding of where energy comes from and how greater sustainability can be achieved. The Year 6 units on Population and Globalisation draw on themes that have been explored throughout KS2, so pupils are really able to approach these complex topics with a great depth and breadth of knowledge. The Rivers unit in Year 4 follows on from the Water, Weather and Climate unit and pupils then continue to build on this knowledge of physical processes through the Biomes unit. The Local Fieldwork unit is in Year 6, so that pupils are exposed to geographical research in KS2. This is a crucial part of a child’s geographical education and we have intentionally incorporated this unit at the end of KS2 to capitalise on their greater maturity and geographical knowledge.
At St Luke’s we use the Pearson curriculum which covers the national curriculum. The curriculum is designed to prepare children for history at KS3 and beyond. The Pearson curriculum ensures a spiral curriculum and enables children start to build schema from an early age. Lessons are designed with cognitive load theory in mind and they follow Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. The materials provided through the Pearson curriculum support teacher subject knowledge allowing teachers to focus on specific lesson elements to bring the enacted curriculum to life.
Intent
At St Luke’s CE Primary School, we value Geography, and a high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Our Geography curriculum aims to 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. As our pupils’ progress, their growing knowledge about the world will help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
At St Luke’s, we have a coherently planned and sequenced curriculum which has been carefully designed and developed with the need of every child at the centre of what we do. We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the Geography national curriculum, but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
Implementation
A complete annual audit of the Geography curriculum is conducted. Following the findings from this audit, the Geography curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. For example, in Year 1 they focus on a topic called ‘Weather and Fieldwork Skills’ and then further down the line in Year 3, they revisit the weather topic in ‘Water, Weather and Climate’.
Geography subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in Geography and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:
- be inspired, curious and fascinated about the world and its people
- develop knowledge about the world to help them deepen their understanding of the interaction between the physical and human processes and the formation of landscapes and environments
- develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places both terrestrial and marine
- understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world and how these are interdependent
- collect, analyse and communicate with a arrange of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork
- interpret a range of maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and (GIS) systems
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways maps, numerical skills and writing at length
Impact
Formative assessment is used as the main tool for assessing the impact of History as it allows for misconceptions and gaps to be addressed more immediately rather than building on insecure historical foundations. End points are instrumental in knowing whether pupils have been successful. We aim for our pupils to recall learning with fluidity and automaticity. We also use twice-yearly academic essays to assess children’s understanding of the topics they have studied and give them the tools to articulate new knowledge.
Assessment information is collected frequently and analysed as part of our monitoring cycle. This process provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in Geography. A comprehensive monitoring cycle is developed at the beginning of each academic year. This identifies when monitoring is undertaken. Monitoring in Geography includes: book scrutinises, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice.
All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.
Click the link below to view our Geography school blog page to see some examples of how our pupils flourish in Geography at St. Luke’s:
https://stlukesceprimary.blog-pages.co.uk/subject/geography/