Acorn Geography

Empowering Learners...Growing Minds

 

We aim to...

Empowering Learners

  • The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.
  • An excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected.

 

 

Growing Minds

  • A passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
  • Highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
  • Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity as shown in interpretations and representations of the subject matter.
  • The ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
  • Fluency in complex geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills. Use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
  • An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like.

Intent

Both geography and history are important subjects which contribute to children’s understanding of the world we live in, and their place in that world. With that in mind, it is important for these subjects to be made real and relevant to the children studying them. It is our intention to provide children with the vocabulary, knowledge, skills and humanity - thus allowing all children to develop, through geography and history, that holistic understanding of our world, and their place in it.

At Kidsgrove Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Following the National Curriculum through the Opening Worlds curriculum in both KS1 and KS2, we intend to inspire children’s curiosity and interest to explore the world that we live in and its people. We intend to equip pupils with geographical skills to develop their knowledge through the study of places, people and natural and human environments. This seeks to deepen the understanding of the Earth’s human and physical features which is knowledge built upon from the Early Years and Foundation Stage right through to Key Stage 2.

Through our teaching, we intend to encourage children to discover answers to their own questions through exploration and research; enabling them to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.

Implementation

At Kidsgrove Primary, our Geography curriculum, which utilises the work of Opening Worlds in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 is taught as an individual subject in every half-term. These studies have been mapped out by Opening Worlds in advance for each of the year groups from 1-6, working as individual years to cover the National Curriculum objectives.

The key driver behind the Opening World’s curriculum is secure geographical knowledge, which is coherent, connected and structured. Thoroughness in knowledge-building is achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing.  Within our Opening world’s curriculum, the mastery of prior content plays a huge part in unlocking future content. Pupils advancing through our curriculum feel enabled by what they have already learned, recognising vocabulary, ideas, people and places so that new material makes sense through connection, therefore freeing up working memory.

Distinctive features of Kidsgrove’s Opening World’s curriculum are:

  • Thoroughness in knowledge-building, achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing.
  • Global and cultural breadth, embracing wide diversity across ethnicity, gender, region and community.
  • Rapid impact on literacy through systematic introduction and revisiting of new vocabulary.
  • Subject-specific disciplinary rigour, teaching pupils to interpret and argue, to advance and weigh claims, and to understand the distinctive ways in which subject traditions enquire and seek truth.
  • Well-told stories and beautifully written narratives.
  • A highly inclusive approach, secured partly through common knowledge (giving access to common language) and partly through thorough high-leverage teaching that is pacey, oral, interactive and fun.
  • Efficient use of lesson time, blending sharp pace, sustained practice and structured reflection.

At Kidsgrove Primary, our Geography curriculum offers pupils the opportunity to grow and develop both their substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

Substantive knowledge is developed through:

Ambitiously broad scope – the KS2 Geography NC requirement to gain place and locational knowledge across the UK, Europe and the Americas is served not in a minimal or tokenistic way, but by ensuring that pupils gain, over the four years, an in-depth knowledge of diverse reference points on which to draw from across the world, from California, Jamaica and the Amazon Basin, to the Rhine, the Mediterranean and the Alps, to Wales, Birmingham and London, to the Indus Valley and the coastal communities of the Indian Ocean, with further underpinning from the historical and religious dimensions of these places);

At Kidsgrove Primary, our Geography curriculum, which utilises the work of Opening Worlds in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 is taught as an individual subject in every half-term. These studies have been mapped out by Opening Worlds in advance for each of the year groups from 1-6, working as individual years to cover the National Curriculum objectives.

The key driver behind the Opening World’s curriculum is secure geographical knowledge, which is coherent, connected and structured. Thoroughness in knowledge-building is achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing.  Within our Opening world’s curriculum, the mastery of prior content plays a huge part in unlocking future content. Pupils advancing through our curriculum feel enabled by what they have already learned, recognising vocabulary, ideas, people and places so that new material makes sense through connection, therefore freeing up working memory.

Distinctive features of Kidsgrove’s Opening World’s curriculum are:

  • Thoroughness in knowledge-building, achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing.
  • Global and cultural breadth, embracing wide diversity across ethnicity, gender, region and community.
  • Rapid impact on literacy through systematic introduction and revisiting of new vocabulary.
  • Subject-specific disciplinary rigour, teaching pupils to interpret and argue, to advance and weigh claims, and to understand the distinctive ways in which subject traditions enquire and seek truth.
  • Well-told stories and beautifully written narratives.
  • A highly inclusive approach, secured partly through common knowledge (giving access to common language) and partly through thorough high-leverage teaching that is pacey, oral, interactive and fun.
  • Efficient use of lesson time, blending sharp pace, sustained practice and structured reflection.

At Kidsgrove Primary, our Geography curriculum offers pupils the opportunity to grow and develop both their substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

Substantive knowledge is developed through:

  • Ambitiously broad scope – the KS2 Geography NC requirement to gain place and locational knowledge across the UK, Europe and the Americas is served not in a minimal or tokenistic way, but by ensuring that pupils gain, over the four years, an in-depth knowledge of diverse reference points on which to draw from across the world, from California, Jamaica and the Amazon Basin, to the Rhine, the Mediterranean and the Alps, to Wales, Birmingham and London, to the Indus Valley and the coastal communities of the Indian Ocean, with further underpinning from the historical and religious dimensions of these places);
  • Meticulous rigor – links to up-to-date scholarship and what geographers know about our world today. Topical links are made to global interests such as climate change and the impact on the environment around us (sea levels, changes to farming, climate and global temperatures)
  • High coherence – intricate links have been made between history, geography and R.E. so that nothing sits in isolation, but is rather supported and enriched both horizontally and vertically.
  • Careful sequencing – for example, pupils’ study of the unit ‘Interconnected Amazon’ in Year 5 will be informed by extensive geographical vocabulary, geographical concepts, geographical ideas, approaches to geography in Years 3, 4 and early 5, such as understanding the water cycle, the nutrient cycle, processes of erosion and desertification, the importance of listening to indigenous voice, the ethical challenges of representing a distant place, ways of describing demographics, relevant locational knowledge, patterns and causes of migration, global connections in food supplies and the technical language of types of farming. They will arrive at ‘Interconnected Amazon’ with all this as a strong foundation.

Disciplinary knowledge is developed through children learning about how knowledge is constantly being reviewed outside of school by its practitioners (historians, geographers, philosophers, theologians, artists). Children learn that our knowledge about our world is not fixed and is constantly being tested and reviewed and how often scientists and geographers work together to test or review a finding.

In studying geography as a discipline, pupils will:

  • Engage in geographical reasoning about change (including past, present and future change), diversity across space and interaction between places, phenomena and processes in the world;
  • Collect, analyse, record and interpret geographical data, learning skills of geographical enquiry, including fieldwork;
  • Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and digital technologies;
  • Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Geographical skills are integrated in all units, as appropriate for the knowledge context and students’ level of development. For example, simple directional language (e.g. left, right, near, far) is learned in Key Stage 1 then reinforced in Year 3 units. More precise ways of talking about location, for example the 4-point compass, are emphasised in Year 3 and 4 units, then more advanced skills, such as the 8-point compass, are introduced and practised in Year 5 and 6. The skills are always used to help the children learn about the world, not as an end in themselves.

The following geographical skills are mapped our across the units within our curriculum:

  • Using ground photos,
  • Using aerial and satellite photos
  • Using and making diagrams
  • Making simple maps with keys
  • Using world and country maps
  • Using thematic maps
  • Using simple directional language
  • Using 4-point compass
  • Using 8 point compass
  • Using 4-figure grid references
  • Using 6-figure grid references
  • Using symbols and keys
  • Using key lines of longitude and latitude
  • Asking questions
  • Using tables and figures
  • Using graphs
  • Digital and computer mapping
  • Fieldwork

At Kidsgrove Primary school lessons are planned using the Opening world long-term planning, which has been adapted to medium term planning overview documents by the school geography lead. Teachers then use this document to plan and deliver 60 - 75 minutes of geography weekly. The Opening Worlds curriculum understands the importance of explicit vocabulary teaching and incorporates it into every lesson. Each unit in KS1 is designed to give children an overarching sense of geography. Each unit in Key Stage 2 is linked to a textbook and this is used alongside the storytelling of the teacher to build the children’s understanding within context. An example of this might be: In KS1 children are introduced to the term weather. Within LKS2 children build upon this using vocabulary such as climate, tropical, temperate, polar.  In UKS2 children then build on the rich vocabulary further using words such as: climate change, deforestation, carbon cyle, greenhouse effect.  This constant build of rich vocabulary sees our children develop a greater understanding of not only the topics but also what they are reading within specific lessons and across the wider curriculum.

How do we provide for all learners?

Most pupils enjoy Geography, but some struggle with aspects of reading and writing or working with maps and atlases. Pupils are encouraged to work as independently as possible, but reasonable adjustments are made for those pupils with SEND. Teachers aim to make Geography accessible and include pupils of all abilities by modifying planning, pre-teaching of geographical vocabulary; live modelling during lessons; reducing outcome expectations, providing scaffolding, individual or group support or give additional time to complete tasks. Geography lessons offer all pupils the chance to explore local and wider environments.

Curriculum Enrichment 

Where possible, units of work is enriched by a school trip, or by a visitor coming into school. Trips and visitors are carefully planned to ensure they link with what is happening in the classroom. For example, when studying rivers, children go on a field trip to the River Trent.

 

Geography Documents

Updated: 05/12/2024 136 KB
Updated: 05/12/2024 76 KB