Geography

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At Pluckley Church of England Primary School we work to ensure that all children thrive in a Christian centred community in which they are encouraged to enjoy, learn and achieve together. We expect our children to be secure in the knowledge that they are safe and cared for – both by us and by God; able to enjoy their time at school; challenge to achieve their best through a high-quality education; happy in the knowledge they are each celebrated for their individuality as well as their achievements.

Our Geography curriculum aims to inspire and enthuse our children about the world in which they live. It encourages them to be curious and inquisitive about our ever-changing world and the people who inhabit it, providing them with opportunities to think critically about how they can have their own positive impact on the world. This is important to us as we want our children to become active and compassionate citizens, with an appreciation of the world’s diverse people, places and cultures. 

Geography lessons at Pluckley Church of England Primary school support the young people in our care to become:

  • Resilient and ambitious children who strive for outstanding outcomes, who use their initiative and are unafraid of making mistakes.
    • Geography lessons are carefully sequenced, ensuring that learning is both broad and deep, allowing children to build, develop and express their geographical knowledge in detail, over time. We encourage our children to use geographical thinking processes; exploring their thoughts and ideas through questions and discussions.
  • Successful learners with a thirst for knowledge who are curious and self-motivated to learn and achieve.
    • We aim to facilitate exciting lessons that engage our pupils so they endeavour to explore their learning further, both as independent learners and as part of collaborative learning. This enables all of our pupils to be successful; asking higher level questions, using critical thinking skills to answer them and to think like geographers.
  • Young people with a strong spiritual foundation who thrive by embodying our REFLECT values in all that they think, say and do.
    • Geography lessons regularly provide opportunities for our pupils to demonstrate our Christian REFLECT values. Pupils often show leadership and cooperation when working collaboratively to develop their locational knowledge when exploring maps atlases as well as modelling to one another how to use resources like the internet appropriately to find the answers to geographical questions. Our pupils demonstrate Respect and Trust in our Geography lessons by listening to and respecting other people's opinions and ideas, and by taking opportunities to empathise with others, argue a point of view and reach their own conclusions.
  • Well-rounded individuals who have a range of strategies to support positive mental health; enabling them to live fulfilled and happy lives.
    • We support our pupils in understanding that Geography lessons are a safe and nurturing environment where they can share their thoughts and ideas without judgement. We also encourage them to develop their motivation in achieving their full potential and being the best that they can be.
  • Confident, responsible individuals who have a strong sense of community and strive to make a positive contribution in their future role in the 21st Century and beyond.
    • Geography lessons give our pupils an opportunity to explore the wider world that may be different to their immediate surroundings and lives. This allows them to develop their awareness of the diversity of the world, people and cultures and encourages them to promote tolerance amongst differences.

How is Geography taught across the school?

We teach Geography once a week, alongside History, following a two year cycle to ensure content and skills are covered across each year group as well as key stages. We follow the National Curriculum and use a combination of PlanBee and Inspire Education resources as the basis for our teaching and learning, however these are supplemented by any other appropriate resources or activities that staff choose, using their own professional judgement in order to best meet the needs of the children in their classes.

We follow our school pedagogical model of ‘Accelerated learning’ which includes the 4 phases; Connect, Activate, Demonstrate and Consolidate. Our connect phase allows our children to recap on Geographical skills and knowledge previously taught in the current term through our ‘Spaced learning’ questions or allows the children to understand how their current learning (New knowledge) is building upon their previous learning (Prior knowledge) from their Geographical lessons in past years. During the active phase of learning children are exposed to information and content in many ways, including pictures, text and videos and are encouraged to partake in discussions with partners or groups to ask and answer questions, that helps develop a positive engagement with their learning. The demonstration phase provides our pupils with the opportunity to show their level of understanding about the Geographical concepts they have been learning about and pupils are provided with a range of ways to complete their learning to ensure that all children have their needs met. Finally, our consolidate phase allows our pupils to collate their learning to answer or discuss context based or skills based questions or statements, permitting them to explain their ideas and reasoning.

In EYFS geography is not taught as a distinct subject, rather it is explored through the specific area of learning: ‘Understanding the World’. During this, the children explore people, culture and communities as well as the natural world. This will be done through explorative learning, with the children experiencing the world around them and in the local area.

How do we know what the children have learnt and understood?

  • Questioning during lessons
  • End of unit quizzes
  • Big write to answer the big question
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