Intent  

At Priory Primary School we believe that Geography helps children make sense of the world around them and sparks their curiosity in different people, places and cultures through investigative work. The geography curriculum at Priory Primary School enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable across the wider curriculum. Geography is, by nature, an exploratory subject and for us at Priory, one that starts with a local focus and then leads out to a wider country and world approach. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Priory Primary School and set them up for a successful future.  

Implementation   

We follow the specifications of the National Curriculum (2014); providing a broad and balanced curriculum, ensuring progressive development of Geographical concepts, knowledge and skills. Additional themes such as Chinese New Year, Recycling Week, Earth Day and World Oceans Day have been included to broaden knowledge and make local and global links.  

 Here at Priory, geography is taught through a wide topic-based approach with direct links, where appropriate, to reading and literacy lessons through their class book. Developed from the National Curriculum objectives, the key knowledge and skills from Early Years to Year 6 have been considered to ensure progression across topics throughout the years.    

At the beginning of each topic, children share all that they know on the topic and are given the opportunity to ask questions that then informs the specific programme of study and ensures the children and engaged and enthused in their learning as well as helping to decide the appropriate starting point. Opportunities for greater depth are always provided, along with support to ensure all learners can access the learning. Through our skills-based approach, the goal is for the children to know more and remember more! All children are assessed at the end of each topic by either a quiz, test, activities or presentations.  

 Impact  

 We believe that the impact of using a topic-based approach is that geography learning is loved by teachers and pupils across school, teachers have higher expectations and more quality evidence can be presented in books. All children will use geographical vocabulary accurately and understand the different strands of geography, with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Children will begin to make relevant links from geography to other curriculum subjects, such as history and science. They will improve their enquiry skills and inquisitiveness about the world around them, and their impact on the world and their environment. All children will discover that they have choices to make in the world, developing a positive commitment to the environment and the future of the planet. Children will become competent in collecting, analysing and communicating a range of data gathered. They will be able to interpret a range of sources of geographical information and they will communicate geographical information in a variety of ways. All children in the school will be able to speak confidently about their geography learning, skills and knowledge.