Geography
At Thurgoland our aim is to inspire children to have a curiosity and fascination about the world’ beyond of immediate locality as well as equipping them ‘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 a Church of England School every aspect of the school’s work is underpinned by Christian values. Geography is seen as a key subject in providing opportunities to explore customs, practices and belief systems of other countries and cultures. Wherever possible we link our R.E. curriculum to other subjects.
Intent
At Thurgoland we intend to:
- Develop children’s geographical skills needed to:
-
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork
- Be increasingly proficient in geographical enquiry; to ask questions and record information in an organised way,
- Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs.
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
- Provide scaffolding and support, including vocabulary banks, differentiated challenges and extra adult help to ensure that ALL groups of learners can access the curriculum.
Implementation
Geographical implementation
- Long term: Collaborative planning ensures that pupils cover all the objectives set within the National Curriculum / Development Matters and that skills progress from year group to year group
- Medium term: Staff follow the Geography skills progression document for their year group and use appropriate elements from the Connected Geography curriculum overviews to plan.
- Short Term: Currently, we are developing an inquiry led approach to each lessons, which cumulates in an overarching question to allow children demonstrate their knowledge and skills developed across the unit.
- Activities are planned bearing in mind the range of ability within a class: less able children are supported with vocabulary banks, differentiated challenges and extra adult help;
- The carefully crafted questions in each lesson allow more able children to inquire more deeply.
- Children are assessed at the end of each geography unit using rising stars assessment criteria and teacher assessment inputted onto Insights Tracker.
- Where appropriate, staff plan for cross curricular opportunities.
Impact
- Learning walks scheduled for Spring to look at the impact of the new progressive curriculum overview with a focus on how disadvantaged groups are supported to access this curriculum.
- Subject knowledge and skills are consolidated by the children completing an exit piece at the end of each topic. This has been implemented in the last two years and so has been implemented for some units but not others due to absence through covid. We will schedule in subject moderation to moderate a cross section of children’s work.
- From this we aim to build a bank of standardised exemplification materials with will aid teacher’s judgements in coming terms / years.
- Teachers plan and assess from the skills progression document, rising stars criteria and Connected Geography curriculum, which has specific skill and knowledge threads that are built upon year by year from EYFS to Y6.
Useful Documents
Values that are at the heart of Thurgoland
#LEARNINGTOGETHERINFAITHANDJOY
Getting here
Halifax Road
Thurgoland
Sheffield
S35 7AL
Thurgoland C of E Primary SchoolPrivacy Policy
