Market Drayton Infant & Nursery School
‘An excellent, happy school, where we enjoy learning’
Geography
Intent
In geography we aim to give all children as much experience as they can to love the world around them and make sense of it. We want the children to develop curiosity and fascination about the world in which they live and to develop skills and knowledge to ask and answer questions to deepen their understanding. This links closely with our school values.
Children are provided with a range of opportunities to build and revisit their skills and knowledge through which they will develop their confidence, resilience and competence as geographers.
The breadth of our geography curriculum, is designed with three goals in mind:
1. To provide appropriate experiences to develop as confident, responsible citizens;
2. To provide a rich ‘cultural capital’;
3. To provide a coherent, structured geography curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are capable.
Our Values in Geography
Collaboration | Respect |
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Aspirations | Positivity |
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As Geographers we want the children to:
Implementation - How Do We Deliver the Geography Curriculum?
Our Geography Curriculum design is based on Chris Quigley Essentials Curriculum. Underpinned by the curriculum drivers, our geography curriculum sets out:
A clear approach as to when the aspects of geography are covered.
This includes the areas of geography that we cover. For our youngest children in early years, Geography is part of Understanding the World. Children learn to make sense of the world around them, starting with their family, home, school, the town we live in and the wider world. This gives a firm basis for the next stage of education in Key Stage 1.
In KS1 (Years 1-2) pupils develop their knowledge of places and begin to understand the physical and human features which shape those places. We study Market Drayton and extend these studies to the UK and wider world. The children learn to use maps to locate cities, countries, oceans and continents. They use atlases, photos and fieldwork to explore the range of places studied.
As they progress into KS2 (Year 3-6), they build on the skills covered in KS1 and develop further aspects of geography including rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, a European and non-European study. In working this way, the children work and develop their understanding throughout the primary phase.
The road map gives you a really good overview of our geography curriculum from nursery to Year 6.
The ‘threshold concepts’ are what pupils should understand and the skills they should develop. In geography, these are returned to again and again across all year groups. They are what develops the designing and making skills. These include:
- Investigating places
- Investigating patterns in geography
- Communicating geographically
This returning to the same thing again and again is called interleaving.
The detailed progression can be found in the document below.
Geography Curriculum Pathway
Geography Curriculum Pathway and Progression Map
Year 1 and 2 Planning Overview | |||||
Cycle A | Market Drayton
Physical and human features of Market Drayton
Weather comparisons
| Welsh Coastal Town
Physical and human features of Llandudno
| United Kingdom
Name and locate the capital countries, capital cities and seas
| India
Where in the world is India?
| Continents and Oceans
Name the World’s continents and oceans
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Cycle B | Market Drayton
Physical and human features of Market Drayton
Weather Comparisons
| Stoke-on-Trent
Physical and human features; cultural diversity
| United Kingdom
Name and locate the capital countries, capital cities and seas
| Brazil
Where in the World is Brazil?
| Continents and Oceans
Name the World’s continents and oceans
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Special Educational Needs and Geography
How do we ensure all children can access geography lessons?
Although a child may have been identified as having a special educational need, they may not have a special educational need in geography. Effective quality first teaching is the key to enabling all children to participate and develop their geographical knowledge and skills. Differentiation within lessons is a vital component to ensure that a balance of support and challenge are achieved for all abilities. This is the same in every subject and differentiation is adjusted as expectations of individual pupils rise through progress. Challenge and support specific to geography may include:
- varying the types of sources used
- first hand experiences
- some pre-teaching
- providing picture clues and definitions for those needing more support
- pupil knowledge sheets
Pupils not secure within a lesson sequence are noted and adjustments made to the differentiation or level of support given. Similarly, added challenge is given if pupils are identified as requiring it. Using an ‘interleaving’ approach means that pupils continually revisit their learning, gradually building a deeper understanding.
Links to other subjects
Subject | How Geography may be linked |
English | Stories: Often used to give a context for the children. Communication: Children learn to communicate their geographical knowledge. Vocabulary: Geographical vocabulary is taught to the children and this helps them to develop what we call tier three vocabulary, for example, human and physical features. Writing: As children progress through school, they will start to communicate what they have learnt in writing. Some of the content for geography may be used to stimulate writing in English. |
Maths | Data: A natural context for learning to record information in charts, tallies an graphs is in geography. |
Science | Weather: Children look at the seasons and this lends itself naturally to the change in weather which transfers across both subjects. |
History | Clive of India: This links in with looking at where in the world is India. Josiah Wedgewood: This pulls in the local context of Stoke-on-Trent and enables children to make links across the subjects. |
Art | Clarice Cliff: Another famous resident from Stoke-on-Trent, allowing links across the subjects. Van Gogh: The children look at Van Gogh and Camille and the Sunflowers in English. The book is set in France. Although this is not an area studied, it gives the opportunity for the children to look at where in the world France is. |
Design Technology | Construction and structures: These both link in with the children looking at the physical features of the town, particularly around the structure of houses. It provides a context for the learning. Cookery: The children make gingerbread. This links together history (Clive of India), geography (India and Spice Trade) and the local context. |
Computing | Internet: Google Earth is used to look at a range of views of different places, for example, Llandudno. Programming: Children learn how to use positional language and direction. |
Music and PE | Indian Music and dance. Brazilian Music and Dance. |
Working with the community
Geography has close links to Market Drayton as all children in Reception and KS1 go on walks around Market Drayton so they can understand their local environment and carry out fieldwork and observational skills. The children visit a local farm, Fordhall Farm, for one of their trips.
Impact - How Do We Help Children Get to a Deep Level of Understanding?
Through the explicit teaching of skills in geography, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. To help children get to a deep level of understanding we return to the threshold concepts again and again. This is known as interleaving.
Children develop each concept over time and it takes a two-year period to get to a deeper level of understanding at the appropriate age. For example, in Year 1, children will have a basic understanding of geography at an age appropriate level, but by revisiting this they should have a deeper level of understanding and have developed their skills by year two.
To support children to develop their knowledge of geography we have developed a range of 'knowledge organisers'. These outline what we want the children to know by the end of a block of work. These can be found under the planning cycle higher up the page.
A lot of geographical work will be practical and hands on. We use 'floor books' which record the learning the children have done in geography, as well as giving the children the opportunity to record individually, particularly as they move towards the end of Year 2.
Pupil Voice
Homework and Home Learning
In reception a pack is sent home each term which includes activities that link to the topics the children are covering in school. In KS1 the Pupil Knowledge Organisers are given out which say what the children will be learning in that term. Take a look at these on the children tab.
Take a look at some of Barnaby Bear's travels.
Take a look at some of our learning
