Geography

Intent

At Damers, we aim to deliver a high-quality Geography curriculum, which inspires children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We follow a Harmony curriculum so our Humanities learning will be entwined with our harmony principle for the term.  We intend to equip children with knowledge and skills that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. 

Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject.  In order to retain new skills, children frequently engage in practical activities in and beyond the classroom.  Children investigate a range of places (both in the UK and the wider world) to develop their knowledge of the Earth’s human and physical processes.  We also intend for children to become confident using key geographical skills across a range of contexts.

Our aim is to ignite a passion for learning about the world they live in, both locally and worldwide and to understand the impact that humans have on the world.  We seek to deepen the children’s understanding by encouraging them to ask and answer questions about the world and provide them with the skills needed to become independent and competent geographers.

Implementation

We have created our own scheme of work for Humanities, with strong links to the National Curriculum.  This offers an appropriate balance between the teaching of History and Geography across the school year based around our Harmony principle for the term. For example Year 4 will learn about rivers and the water cycle with the principle of circles and cycles.  We ensure that all aspects of knowledge and skills associated with Geography are being taught across all year groups with inbuilt progression in the development of skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression.

We want children to enjoy and love learning about geography by gaining this knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits.  Where appropriate, we make cross-curricular links so that learning is repeated in several contexts and children are given opportunities to recall knowledge and skills, strengthening their long-term memory.

In order to plan for repetition and the building of prior knowledge, teachers are expected to know what has been taught previously as well as having a secure understanding of what needs to be taught.

Impact 

Our Geography curriculum is planned to demonstrate clear progression.  Children will develop the geographical knowledge and skills to enable them to explore, navigate and understand the world around them.  Engaging lessons will shape inquisitive learners, who aspire to research and explore new learning further.  This will be evident through pupil voice, where children will confidently be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired and work will display the range of topics covered and clear cross-curricular links.  Not only will children be equipped with the knowledge, skills and understanding set out in the National Curriculum, they will be prepared to become competent geographers through their educational journey and as an adult living in the wider world.

Please click to view our Geography Progression of Knowledge and Skills.