Geography

Geography Leaders: Mrs Marsden

The intention for Geography at our school

Why Is Geography important to learn?

Geography is important to enable children to have understanding and knowledge of their local area and the wider world.

At Hinchliffe Mill Junior and Infant School, we strive to provide our children with the opportunities to deepen their interest and wonder in exploring their own place within the world. We believe Geography is an education for life and living. Through our curriculum, our children will develop a sense of their world at the local, national and global scales, helping them to develop an appreciation of the importance of their role in society in order to create a sustainable world for future generations which preserves and celebrates diversity.

What Does Geography at Hinchliffe Mill School look Like?

Geography is taught through a curriculum that allows the children to discover the world around them and then ask questions that enable them to deepen their understanding of the world around them. A topic - based approach is used at Hinchliffe Mill Infant and Junior School to ensure learning is meaningful and relevant. Topics are selected in order to meet National Curriculum objectives and to promote the school’s drivers that underpin our curriculum. These are:

Community
Sustainability of our world
Our diverse world and celebration of our differences.

Clear links are made with other subjects where possible throughout the EYFS, Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum to provide a wider picture of the Earth and its history.

Our children in Early Years develop their understanding of the world through practical, play based activities and rich stories. They make observations about their immediate environment and explore how the natural world changes through the seasons. They also use their knowledge from stories, non fiction texts and if appropriate simple maps to explain similarities and differences between their lives and people in other countries.

In Key Stage One, children learn about their locality, Huddersfield, and the jobs people do there. They develop their knowledge of the UK through studying human and physical features that make the UK special. They will learn about the wider world through studying Australia and what tourists do when they visit there.

In Key Stage 2, children delve deeper into human and physical geography. They learn about physical geographical processes such as the formation of volcanoes, the journey of a river, the water cycle, local floods and climate and biomes. Human geography includes studies of major cities in the UK, imports and exports from the UK and how jobs might change to make the world a greener planet.

Implementation

How is Geography taught across school?

Geography is taught as a topic based subject in three half terms over the year. In the half terms when Geography isn't taught History will be taught in its place.

How is Geography Assessed?

Assessment is completed in both a formative and summative format. An assessment of pupil knowledge is completed after the planned unit has been taught. Prior to this, a learning quiz is also conducted at the start of each new topic to ascertain the retention of prior understanding, knowledge and vocabulary.

Further to this each sessions starts with a short recap of vocabulary, learning outcomes from the previous lesson, previous unit or previous unit taught in the subject the year before .

What adjustments are made to ensure that learning is accessible to all pupils?

Planning identifies areas for support for all pupils with additional needs and differentiation of outcomes, resources and tasks are in place so that all pupils can meet the desired learning outcomes for the lesson and unit of work. Each unit has specific learning intentions for pupils who are SEND, working at an Advancing or Deeper Level. This supports our mixed age classes to ensure that challenge and support is present as part of their learning diet.

How do we promote Geography?

We promote a love of learning for Geography and a curiosity for finding out about the world around them. We achieve this by encouraging children to initially ask questions about their world and as they develop begin to discuss and debate geographical issues such as climatic change and natural disasters. Opportunities for these discussions not only occur during Geography lessons but also class assemblies where Picture News Assemblies provide a stimulus for children to discuss and debate relevant geographical issues at their level of understanding. These assemblies ensure children across school have opportunities to learn about their wider world.

Children have access to atlases, globes and OS maps in order to enhance their locational knowledge. Regular questioning and quizzes about learning that has already taken place allow children to recall their geographical knowledge about places, countries and continents already studied.