Geography

Intention

At Ling Bob School, we believe that Geography can inspire children with a curiosity and fascination about the world in which they live. We want pupils to acquire a wide geographical vocabulary, a solid understanding of the Geography Programme of Study as identified in the National Curriculum and be able to use and develop their geographical mapping and field study skills and effectively apply these throughout their time in primary school. Through teaching geographical skills, our learners develop a range of investigation and problem solving skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and can be used to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We want our children to develop geographical skills; collecting and analysing data, using maps, globes, atlases and digital mapping to name and identify countries, continents and oceans as well as communicating information in a variety of ways. We want children to enjoy and love learning about    geography by gaining knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom but also with the use of educational visits, visitors in school and fieldwork. The curriculum is flexible and adapted to support those children with SEND and those who have English as an addition language.

In Practice

At Ling Bob, our topic programme is carefully balanced and planned to be age appropriate across the years to ensure that there is full coverage of the National Curriculum and the Early Years Framework. The topics are planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and help the children to access new learning, this is recorded on progression maps for each key stage. Knowledge organisers are produced by subject    leaders and teachers to show key learning outcomes, the key vocabulary, the sticky knowledge and skills children will gain. It is important to us that where appropriate, we make as many meaningful links as possible with other subject areas. 

We have a two year rolling programme due to our mixed aged classes. Each half term/ term the children    focus on either geography or history so that more time can be spent focusing on the key skills of that subject. Topic is planned for one lesson each week and sometimes a topic day is planned so that children can become fully immersed in their learning.

We feel that as a priority our children need to learn about our local area so that they can develop their geographical skills in a practical and meaningful way, this will give their learning a purpose. In FS we learn about our unit and their playground including features within it. In KS1 we focus on the whole school and the area immediately surrounding it; this includes our school and the Pellon community. Lower KS2 focus on Halifax town centre and the area surrounding it. Upper KS2 look at flooding in the Calder Valley and the measures taken in order to combat climate change.

Outcome

When children leave Ling Bob School they will be able to work with confidence across many areas of geography. Children will have developed the knowledge, skills and understanding to help them study and investigate geography in a safe and inquisitive way. Children will have developed skills that equip them to be geographers throughout their lives.