Geography

Geography Curriculum at Geoffrey Field Junior School

The aim of our Geography curriculum is that our pupils leave us with:

• an understanding and appreciation of the world we live in.
• an understanding of the community in which they live, why it is unique and how it is linked to the broader world.
• an understanding that many of the world’s most critical problems today, whether it be global warming or natural disasters, all stem from a geographical basis.
• an understanding of human and physical geography
• an ability to explore and find out about the world through focused fieldwork and enquiry based learning

Our Geography Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to develop key geographical knowledge and skills that will allow them to explore a variety of concepts both relevant to their local community as well as the world around them. To achieve this, we have developed concept threads. These are ideas that are interwoven throughout every geography unit we teach. The concepts are progressive and build upon the knowledge and understanding from the previous year.

Our concepts are:

● Location – Where things are located on the Earth’s surface
● Place – What an area is like
● Interconnection – How people and things are connected to other people and things
● Environment – Our natural world
●  Sustainability – Our impact on the natural world and how we can look after it for the future

Each year group has set skills to teach within units of work, which are broken up into four key areas:

• Questions and enquiry
• Communication
• Fieldwork, collecting and recording data
• Using and creating maps

This ensures that all geographical skills are taught and built upon throughout each year. It also enables the pupils to apply skills from one unit of work or one year group, to another unit of work or another year group. Teachers check the pupils’ prior knowledge at the start of every new unit and between some units, to ensure both concepts and skills have been retained.

The Geography topics taught at Geoffrey Field Junior School can be seen below:

GFJS Localised Curriculum

At Geoffrey Field, we have developed a localised curriculum, which focuses on areas of importance and barriers for our pupils. These key areas are woven into our geography curriculum, to ensure our pupils receive a full, rich and engaging curriculum.

• Oracy – exploratory and presentational talk is planned into all geography units, ensuring pupils are given the opportunity to work collaboratively, deepen their understanding of the topic and draw upon the wider curriculum to present their work.
• Vocabulary – two or three words are carefully chosen to introduce each topic, exposing pupils to new vocabulary. These are linked to what the children are learning and are revisited regularly.
• Understanding of the wider world – real life events are weaved into geography units to give children a context in which to apply their learning. Each year group holds regular ‘In the News’ assemblies, focusing on different topical events from around the world, which they pin onto a world map in their year group area.
• Love of reading – books and extracts are used within geography units, to provide children with the opportunity to read around their topics. The school library has sections for each geography topic taught in the school, allowing pupils to follow their own interests and expand their knowledge.