Intent

At Chorlton CofE, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it.

Through our Geography curriculum we aim for our children to:

• Build knowledge of the location of national and globally significant places

• Understand the processes that give rise to physical and human Geography, and the impact this can have on a locality

• Use and develop fieldwork skills that allow for data collection, analysis, observation and recording of key geographical processes

• Interpret a range of sources of geographical information such as maps (including Ordnance Survey and digital), atlases, globes, compasses, diagrams and geographical photographs.

Implementation

At Chorlton CofE we believe Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject. One that helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about natural and human aspects of the world. Geography’s fundamental role is to allow children to understand the world, its environments and places near and far. Children begin by learning about the 'near', their own locality and what makes it unique and special. This expands as they grow and their knowledge deepens. Through field skills and interpretation, we hope our children leave us with a solid understanding of the fascinating and precious nature of the world around us and what we need to do to protect it. 

Our Geography curriculum has been shaped to ensure knowledge and skills are entwined with different aspects of geographical content. Due to its quizzical and tangible nature, Geography is taught through a variety of topics throughout the year. This helps children to achieve depth in their learning and provides children with wonderful cross curricular links across most subjects. 

Teachers have identified the key knowledge, skills and vocabulary of each topic and these are mapped across the school, ensuring that knowledge builds progressively and that children develop skills systematically. Existing knowledge is checked at the beginning of each topic, as part of the "retrieval practice". This ensures that teaching is informed by the children's starting points and that it takes account of pupil voice. Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion.

In addition to essential classroom resources such as globes, world map posters and atlases, specific resources and texts are mapped to particular year groups and topics to support effective teaching and learning. The school grounds and local area is utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom  including Forest School lessons. Digimaps is used to support children in developing knowledge of the location of globally significant places, in addition to using international, aerial and historical maps, as well as personalising digital maps in order to support the needs of individual children. At the end of each topic, key knowledge is retrieved and reviewed by the children in the form of a "double page spread" and rigorously checked by the teacher and consolidated as necessary.

Our Geography curriculum is also drawn from: 

• Digimaps

• The Geographical Association

• The Eco-Schools Programme

• The Pod

• Bloomsbury Curriculum Basics: Teaching Primary Geography

Impact

Pupil voice tells us that our children enjoy Geography lessons and are confident in talking about landscapes, people, places and environments. Outcomes in books evidence a broad and balanced Geography curriculum. At the end of each topic, children's “double page spreads” showcase their learning and demonstrate their acquisition of identified key language and knowledge relating to the identified national curriculum strands; Locational Knowledge, Place Knowledge, Human Geography and Physical Geography. This is in addition to the development and application of key skills, supported by fieldwork.

As children progress through school, they develop a deep knowledge and understanding of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. This was recently showcased during the school’s 120th anniversary celebration. Geographical understanding, as well as children’s environmental education is further supported by the Eco Schools programme and this is recognised by the school achieving its 5th Eco Schools Green Flag Award and 10th year of flying the flag in 2021. It is also highlighted through the children’s positive impact in reducing air pollution around our school, by working with Trafford council to hold a School Streets Road Closure on Vicars Road.

Children learn about careers related to Geography from members of the local and wider community, with specialist skills and knowledge (for example during Science Week) and this ensures that they are well prepared for the next steps of their education. Campaigns and programmes such as Big School’s Bird Watch, Waste Week, Switch Off Fortnight, The Great Big School Clean and Bike Ability ensure that children leave KS2 being more socially and environmentally sensitive, as well as being informed and responsible citizens in our community and world.