Geography Subject Intent

The purpose of the Colchester School’s Primary Geography Curriculum is to develop our children’s understanding of the world around them by exploring global, national, and local places and environments. It should inspire our children by building their curiosity and developing a sense of awe and wonder in the world around them, broadening their understanding of the diverse cultures, places, and perspectives beyond their Colchester setting.

As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between human and physical processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. We want pupils to understand their role in the world and develop a conscience about how they act as global citizens. We encourage responsible attitudes towards the environment and sustainable living, engaging our value of ‘Courageous Optimism’ to reinforce the difference every one of us can make for future generations.

Implement

We alternate the teaching of geography and history topics each half term, to ensure the children receive a comprehensive teaching of the humanities subjects throughout the year. When the opportunity occurs, we create links between the two subjects to help deepen the learning taking place. These subjects are taught as part of a two-year cycle for each age phase.

We aim to provide children with a solid understanding of geographical vocabulary and terminology so they can discuss, describe and question the world in which they live, and their place within it. Key geographical knowledge and language (such as, the name and location of continents, countries, capital cities and oceans) is revisited regularly, to make learning memorable, relevant and easy to retrieve.

Our curriculum will provide opportunities for children to engage in field work and geographical enquiries and support the development of their deeper thinking skills by working collaboratively, analysing data, researching information, and questioning their findings. Where possible, offsite trips are planned to enhance learning in geography further and to develop a ‘real life’ context. For instance, Year 1/2 children visited a sea-life centre during their ‘Under The Sea’ topic, and the Year 3/4 children went on a local walk to spot signs of sustainability within their community during their ‘Changes’ topic.

Impact

The impact of our Geography curriculum is measured in a variety of ways: questioning during lesson time, marking children’s class work, listening to child-led discussion, pupil voice surveys, and book looks. By end of the Geography curriculum, our children will have a growing knowledge of the world and their place in it; have a wider vocabulary of geographical terms; develop their geographical skills, such as, map reading, evaluation, problem solving and questioning.