At Lady Margaret Primary School, a high-quality geography education inspires pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world, local environment and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching at LMPS, equips pupils with the knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, with a clear understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world will support them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.
At Lady Margaret Primary School, each unit of work is linked to the four key themes across the school: Legacy, morality, power and sustainability. By linking each unit of geography to the four key themes, the children are posed questions about how they can make a change individually, as a class or as a school. In effect, children are able to use the themes to reflect back on and recall previously taught units in earlier years. If a theme applies to the lesson, a slide should be dedicated to this in the introduction. In KS2, pupils demonstrate their geographical knowledge and understanding linked to the four school themes.
At LMPS, the aim of geography is to stimulate children’s attention in their local surroundings and develop a knowledge and understanding of the physical and human processes which shape places. We aim to increase children’s knowledge of cultures and teach a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multicultural country. Children have learning opportunities that stimulate them to learn and adopt a sense of curiosity and wonder of the world around them. Children are encouraged to become a true geographer.
At LMPS, we are passionate about sustainability and ensure there is environmental teaching within each unit of geography work.
Children have the opportunity to make sense of their own surroundings through learning about their own locality and the interaction between people and the environment. Children regularly use local fieldwork to develop their geographical skills, including how to use, draw and interpret maps of different scales, and the vocabulary necessary to carry out effective geographical enquiry.
Geography topics studied across the school are linked clearly with the national curriculum and then assigned to a year group based on their high-quality core text and relevance to the children.
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, geography is included as part of ‘Understanding the World.’ Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increase their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.’ (Statutory framework for the early year’s foundation stage, DfE 2021).
The areas of learning that are closely linked to Geography with Understanding the world are People, Culture and Communities and The Natural World. At the end of Reception, there is a statutory assessment of the Early Learning Goals.
During Key Stage 1, pupils investigate their local area and a contrasting area in Kenya (Year 1), finding out about the environment in both areas and the people who live there. Identifying key physical and human features of the two areas and identifying similarities and differences. The children also begin to learn about the wider world. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions about people, places and environments, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps, digimaps and photographs to enhance their learning and understanding.
Throughout Key Stage 2, the children investigate a variation of people, places and environments in the United Kingdom and abroad, and make links between different places in the world. They learn about the importance of environmental geography; how people affect the environment and how they are affected by it. Pupils carry out geographical investigations inside and outside the classroom. By doing this, they ask geographical questions, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps, atlases, compasses, digimaps, aerial photographs and computing skills.
Children will develop geographical enquiry skills, including asking geographical questions, collecting and recording information and identifying different views. They will acquire the appropriate practical skills associated with geography, including using suitable vocabulary, fieldwork techniques and maps, plans and atlases. Pupils will use secondary sources of information with accuracy, including aerial photographs, satellite images, etc. As well as making its own distinctive contribution to the school curriculum, geography contributes to the wider aims of primary education. Teachers will ensure that links between subjects are maximized, including geography, science and computing.
The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in geography lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in geography. We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our geography lessons. We believe in whole-class teaching methods and combine these with enquiry-based research activities. At LMPS we aim to provide the children with opportunities for regular fieldwork. We encourage children to handle geographical resources and to ask as well as answer geographical questions. We offer them the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as maps (digimaps), statistics, graphs, pictures, aerial photographs, geographical footage and we enable them to use IT in geography lessons where this enhances their learning. Children take part in role-play and discussions, and they present reports to the rest of the class. Wherever possible, we involve the children in ‘real’ geographical activities, e.g. research of a local environmental problem, visiting
relevant sites and carrying out fieldwork.
In Geography, all children should have the opportunity to access high quality lessons that meet the needs of every learner. To support SEN pupils in Geography, it is imperative that colourful semantics are used when appropriate, maps are differentiated, appropriate resources I.e., atlases, books etc are chosen to enable all learners to access new information.
Differentiation in geography is primarily by outcome and by making sure that all children have access to appropriate materials and resources in order to access their learning effectively. Where differentiation is by task, it is based on the children’s ability to learn new information and apply it. The Geography Co-ordinator liaises closely with the SENCO (Special Needs Co-ordinator), to ensure that all our children have appropriate access to geography, including provision of special resources or equipment where necessary.
The Geography Leader will oversee planning and monitor pupil’s work. Throughout each unit, the sticky knowledge and understanding will be assessed by the class teacher. In geography lessons, children will be assessed through a range of formative and summative assessments.
For example: questioning enables a student, with the help of their teacher, to find out what level they are at. The teacher provides feedback to each student about how to improve their learning. Students understand what successful work looks like for each task they are doing.
Students become more independent in their learning, taking part in peer assessment and self assessment. Summative assessments (e.g. end of unit presentation) are also used formatively to help them improve. The children will have an end of topic assessment that the teacher will use to inform their judgement about the child’s retention of sticky knowledge and key learning elements of the unit of work.
The geography leader leads the maintenance and development of the subject. They are responsible for assuring quality and standards in the subject by:
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Last reviewed:
May 2022