Geography

“The study of Geography is about more than just memorising place on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating diversity of cultures that exist across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all the knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.”

 Barack Obama.

Whitehouse has pupils from over 24 countries from a range of cultures and backgrounds. We believe that an increased geographical awareness not only helps our pupils understand the world around them but to understand one another which is vital in creating the positive and inclusive atmosphere we have at our school. 

Intent of our Geography Provision

At Whitehouse Community Primary School, we aim to provide stimulating, exciting and creative geographical learning experiences. Our spiral enquiry approach aims to develop a range of geographical skills and knowledge year on year. Our Geography curriculum is designed to build our pupils’ understanding through a range of learning opportunities, both in and out of the classroom, whilst also developing their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding.  Our Geography curriculum aims to cover a wide range of Geographical skills and knowledge. This includes studies of places, cultures and environments, both in Britain and the wider world; teaching of geographical processes and vocabulary; opportunities for fieldwork experiences and techniques; opportunities to investigate, apply questioning skills and express well-balanced opinions of current issues affecting society and the environment; and the ability to reach clear conclusions and explain their findings. Through high quality teaching, we aim to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Implementation of our Geography Provision

Our Geography curriculum is taught using carefully chosen half termly enquiry themes and focusses on the progression of knowledge and skills year on year. In every year group, a range of carefully written targets guide teachers to plan and assess children’s Geography learning. These targets may be taught through discrete geography lessons or within other curriculum subjects such as writing projects in English or geography themed guided reading texts. All geography lessons are differentiated using our three-step learning objectives and gold challenges. Geography targets are displayed on the learning objective so children are aware of the skill they are developing. All pupils have a purple learning journal which is used to record enquiry based lessons, although geography skills will also be evidenced with English writing and guided reading books. In Key Stage 1, pupils will develop basic knowledge about the world, focussing mainly on the United Kingdom and their locality. The children are introduced to basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and will begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation to enhance their understanding of their local environment. In Key Stage 2, pupils will broaden their knowledge beyond their locality to the wider world, including Europe and North and South America. The children’s map work skills will be developed and refined. As children progress through the school, they are encouraged to develop an informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat. Learning walls are used in every classroom to display key vocabulary and visual prompts to support and engage pupils with their learning theme. Teachers are encouraged to plan as many educational visits, guest speakers or fieldwork opportunities as possible to support and enrich the learning of geography within their year group.

Impact of our Geography Provision

• Pupils have highly developed transferable knowledge, skills and understanding and are able to make connections between what they’re learning and the wider school community and world.
• The outcomes of children’s work are displayed around the school. These cross-curricular displays stimulate curiosity and celebrate how our themes allow children to produce high-quality work.
• High quality work is evidenced within learning journals and other topic based work. Sequences of lessons show progress of skills and knowledge.
• Cross-curricular links in lessons build confidence, motivate pupils and support them in making connections and remembering and applying the skills they have been taught.
• Our pupils’ increased geographical awareness not only helps our children understand the world but also understand each other, creating our school’s positive and inclusive environment.
• Teacher assessment, peer assessment and pupils’ self-assessment are used to track progress and attainment. Assessments are recorded and monitored on classroom monitor and analysed through pupil-progress meetings termly.