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Geography
At Thurgoland our aim is to inspire children’s love of learning about the world around them. We aim to promote a ‘curiosity and fascination about the world’ beyond that of the children’s 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.’ Our curriculum is designed to nurture a love of the world and foster a respect for the environment with knowledge about climate and sustainability.
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 for children to explore and respect 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:
- Nurture the love of learning by delivering a curriculum which examines geography through the key strands of location, place, physical and human processes, climate and sustainability, whilst also allowing children to follow their own interests.
- Encourage and provide opportunities for pupils to aim high by knowing more and remembering key knowledge and through our inquiry led approach, for them to aim high and apply their learning.
- We develop children’s resilience in using different 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.
- To ensure that ALL learners are able to develop a give it a go attitude to geography we provide scaffolding and support, including vocabulary banks and adaptations to tasks and resources.
- Nurture the love of learning by delivering a curriculum which examines geography through the key strands of location, place, physical and human processes, climate and sustainability.
- Encourage pupils to aim high by demonstrating their knowledge though our enquiry led approach and extended learning opportunities.
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: Knowledge is mapped out through the medium term plans following the Geography knowledge progression document for each year group. Where appropriate elements from the Connected Geography curriculum supports the planning and delivering of the curriculum.
- Short Term: We have an enquiry led approach to each lesson, 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, task and resource adaptations;
- 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 the intended unit knowledge statements and teacher assessment inputted onto Insights Tracker.
- Where appropriate, staff plan for cross curricular opportunities.
- Suggested activities are put on dojo each half term to encourage children to aim high by questioning and researching their topics further.
Geographical Concepts
Our Geography curriculum focusses on 6 key concepts. These concepts run through units in each year group. Units cover multiple concepts so that pupils are exposed to them throughout their Geography journey. The interconnectedness of the concepts aims to further fuel pupil’s awe and wonder about the world around them.
Geography at Thurgoland | |
Location | Location helps pupils to develop a sense of where a place is located in the world, starting with their immediate environment. As pupils move through school this concept builds on their knowledge of the world, continents, countries and oceans. |
Place | Place grows pupils’ knowledge of what a place is like. Pupils learn about human and physical features so that they can understand how a place would look and what it would be like to go there. |
Physical processes | The concept of physical processes develops pupils’ knowledge of how the world is shaped by the physical world. |
Human processes | The concept of human processes helps pupils to build an understanding of how humans impact the world around them. |
Climate | Climate develops pupils understanding of how climate can both affect and be affected by humans. |
Sustainability | In a world, where humans are continually impacting the earth sustainability aims to develop pupil’s knowledge of stewardship and how they can show respect to the world they live in to make it a better place. |
Fieldwork
At Thurgoland CE Primary School, every block of learning includes opportunities for fieldwork. Each year, students participate in an enquiry focused on one of three fieldwork themes: physical, human, or climate. Although these enquiries may overlap with other themes, each is primarily concentrated on a single theme.
The school carefully plans fieldwork to ensure not only a progression in knowledge but also an increase in the depth of study and the sophistication of the skills and equipment used for data collection. Throughout their time at school, pupils utilise both primary and secondary data to form conclusions. Additionally, map skills are progressively developed across different units.
Physical | Human | Climate |
Physical fieldwork mainly focuses on landscapes that surround the children or are familiar to them. It looks at how processes, both physical and human, can affect them. Pupils will observe and analyse the information that they collect to make conclusions. | Human fieldwork allows children to assess the impact on humans on familiar surrounds. As it progresses through school it encourages children to compare the human impact in different places. | Climate enquiries encourage pupils think about what climate is and progress through a range of skills and techniques for gathering climate data. Through school pupils are encouraged to think about how to collect reliable data and the importance of this in reaching conclusions. |
Equalities
All children at Thurgoland have an equal entitlement to access the curriculum and make progress in order to be their best self.
Inclusion
Subject leaders will work alongside SENCO and teachers to ensure that pupils with special educational needs, EHCPs and school focused plans will access the appropriate curriculum and reasonable adjustments will be planned and implemented by class teachers.
Where applicable children’s SEND provision maps incorporate adjustments and adaptations to specific curriculum areas. For example, in Geography, enlarging maps and simplified coordinates.
Additional scaffold and support will be planned into lessons to support to children who fall below national expectations.
Greater Depth Children
Within lessons teachers provide activities to stretch and challenge children who are more able.
Impact
- Children at Thurgoland are knowledgeable about places, their location and demonstrate a curiosity about the world. They make links between what they are learning now and what they have previously learnt, demonstrating a real love of learning.
- Geographers at Thurgoland make sense of the world by applying knowledge of human and physical processes to new localities.
- Children use vocabulary with confidence and can articulate their learning journey across school. They can talk about places, describe processes and discuss findings from fieldwork using geographical terminology.
- Children can talk about the importance of respecting the environment around us and in the wider world. From beginning in EYFS, children foster an understanding how humans can impact on the world around us.
- Children develop the resilience needed to work like a geographer, using skills to interpret a range of geographical resources.
- Children aim high through engagement with the topic homework.
- Subjects at Thurgoland are monitored through the year as per the monitoring calendar but also through regular drop ins and sharing of outcomes.
- Subject knowledge and skills are consolidated by the children completing an exit piece at the end of each topic. 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 knowledge progression document and Connected Geography curriculum, which has specific knowledge threads that are built upon year by year from EYFS to Y6.
Values that are at the heart of Thurgoland
#LEARNINGTOGETHERINFAITHANDJOY
Getting here
Halifax Road
Thurgoland
Sheffield
S35 7AL
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