Compton C.E. Primary School

Throughout their time at Compton, we want to create confident geographers that have had the opportunity to:

· Foster a curiosity about the world in which they live and have the desire to discover more about it.

· Have developed their knowledge of the location of globally significant places, those terrestrial and marine, including their defining characteristics both physical      and human.

· Understand and be able to explain the processes that have resulted in key physical and human features of the world.

· Have competence when interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, such as maps, atlases, globes and aerial photographs and have       confidence when using geographical terminology, including longitude, latitude and climate zones.

· Have equipped themselves with the skills in fieldwork to pose questions and find answers through observations, measurements and recordings, drawing on their previous learning to formulate explanations about the human and physical features of the local area.

Geography Overview.

Throughout their school journey, the pupils’ geography projects are well sequenced to provide an in-depth scheme that develops children’s geographical knowledge and skills. As Geographical locations are not specified in the National Curriculum, our units have chosen locations that allow a broad and diverse understanding of the world.

Our projects allow for opportunities to make meaningful connections with projects that drive other areas of the curriculum. Our geography topics are sequenced accordingly to support this. For example, children revisit the geography of settlements in the history project ‘School days’ after they have studied the types of settlements in the geography project ‘Bright lights, big city’.

Throughout the school, geography units are taught in the autumn and spring terms, allowing tailored teaching to revisit areas of weakness in the summer term.

Geography in Key Stage 1.

In Key Stage 1, each autumn term begins with essential skills and knowledge projects – Our wonderful world in Year 1 and Let’s Explore the world in Year 2. Teaching these projects in years 1 and 2 enables children to be introduced to, or revisit, critical geographical concepts, skills and knowledge. These projects prepare the children for more thematic geography projects in the following term.

In the spring term of Year 1, children study the project Location, location, vacation. This project introduces children to the geography of urban environments and the physical and human features of the United Kingdom and allows for comparison with a South American country.

In contrast, in the spring term of Year 2, children carry out a detailed study of coastal geography in the project Coastline. This project introduces children to the geography of coastal environments and provides children with the opportunity for in-depth coastal fieldwork.

Geography in Lower Key Stage 2.

In Lower Key Stage 2, children begin with essential skills and knowledge projects – One planet, our world in Year 3 and Interconnected world in Year 4. Teaching these projects in years 3 and 4 enables children to further develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of key geographical concepts and prepares them to study more detailed thematic projects in the following term.

In the spring term of year 3, children study the project Rocks, relics and rumbles, which explores physical features and geographical phenomena, including earthquakes and volcanoes.

In contrast, in the spring term of year 4, children carry out a detailed study of the physical features of mountains and rivers, which includes opportunities for in-depth fieldwork.

Geography in Upper Key Stage 2.

In Upper Key Stage, children again begin with building their essential skills and knowledge in the projects Investigating our world and Our changing world in Year 5 and 6 respectively. Teaching these projects in years 5 and 6 enables children to further develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of key geographical concepts and prepares them to study more in-depth thematic projects in the following term.

In the Spring term of Year 5, children study the seasonal project Sow, grow and farm, which explores farming, agriculture and land use locally, nationally and internationally.

In the Spring term of Year 6, children study the polar regions in the project Frozen Kingdoms. The project includes an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of these regions, including current environmental issues.

Geography lessons at Compton.

Geography is taught in discrete units in the Autumn term of each year group, this recaps the essential skills and knowledge in geography before building on these ever-expanding foundations in themed units. By following lessons from the Cornerstones curriculum it ensures that our children receive a broad geography curriculum and provide opportunities to develop all areas with geography. Cornerstones also provide initial ideas and potential resources but ultimately Geography lessons are shaped by the class teacher using their knowledge of their pupils to ensure that the content and complexity takes into account prior learning and attainment of the children in previous years and terms. Here, you will find inputs, resources and strategies being manipulated to make sure that all children address areas of weakness so that they can access the learning without a dilution of the content.

In Geography lessons, children will demonstrate their secure understanding by explaining key geographical ideas, concepts and processes with confidence and in greater depth as they progress through the years. The children will grow in confidence when using aerial pictures, maps and atlases appropriate to their age and be able to explain what they show making links to other areas where appropriate. The pupils at Compton will develop their geographical language from the early years and Key Stage 1, broadening and deepening their geographical dictionary as they progress through the school. These key terms will be dual coded where appropriate. They will be able to securely use geographical terminology in context and explain their meanings orally and in written work. To

further support this, knowledge organisers are shared with parents at the beginning of each unit and subject-specific vocabulary is shared with parents at the beginning of each week so they can participate in discussion around their child’s learning.

In our geography lessons, you will see that our students:

• Demonstrate a curiosity about the world in which they live and enjoy finding out about different places in the world and their human and physical features.
• Show a deepening understanding of how features of the world have been created and how global phenomena occur by explaining these using key geographical terminology.
• Have a developing locational knowledge, expanding from the local area to the national and then international, using locational terminology to explain where these places are as well as the similarities and differences between them such as biomes, climate zones, lines of longitude and latitude.
• Have a growing confidence when interpreting geographical resources such as maps, atlases and aerial pictures, describing what these show.