Geography at Stoke Minster CE Primary Academy

Intent

With Faith, Hope and Love in our hearts together we grow and flourish.

At Stoke Minster, our approach to an ambitious, high-quality education within the subject of Geography aims to ensure that all children gain a secure knowledge of the location of globally significant places, both terrestrial and marine, identifying and comparing them according to both physical and human characteristics.  Through our Geography curriculum, at Stoke Minster, we seek to create a life-long love of the subject, this is achieved by teaching our children about diverse places, people and resources. By providing our children with the opportunity to study a range of natural and human environments, as well as physical and human processes, our desire is to ignite a sense of awe and wonder within our children about the world they live in – we believe in doing so this enhances the spiritual development of our children and their love and responsibility for our planet.

The geography curriculum at Stoke Minster meets the EYFS and National Curriculum requirements and is both progressive and relevant to our children. Stoke Minster is a diverse multi-cultural community with a large proportion of our children having English as an additional language; our curriculum is designed to reflect this by recognising the rich diversity of pupil’s backgrounds alongside providing the key knowledge required for thriving in our ever changing world for example Y2 compare the UK to Pakistan, y3 study changing settlements, y5 study human impact within the rainforest and y6 study an extended unit on Trade which focuses upon worldwide trade and also the ethics of Fair Trade etc .

Our Geography curriculum is progressive thus fostering a deep understanding of subject knowledge and vocabulary which develops alongside their geographical skills. Our curriculum enables children to develop locational, observational and interpretive skills as well as having planned opportunities for

them to think critically about the impact that physical and human geography have upon the world today. Children are progressively given the opportunity to collect, record and present information using technology to enhance their understanding of the world around them.

Geography lessons at Stoke Minster incorporate our Stoke Minster Pupil entitlement, they all follow a set structure beginning with revisiting prior learning and giving time to reflect upon key learning at the end of the lesson. The geography curriculum is designed with retrieval practise in mind; essential or key knowledge is identified for each lesson to enable pupils to remember more overtime and therefore make connections between topics.

The geography curriculum at Stoke Minster, is designed to provide our children with the subject specific vocabulary that they need to describe, question and discuss the world and their place within it. Pupils are encouraged to recognise that they have a voice and to use it confidently to debate topics that they feel passionate about, for example, deforestation, fair trade or renewable energy.

We aim to produce well- rounded individuals by providing our children with opportunities to expand their cultural capital and experiences of the world as throughout the geography curriculum there are planned opportunities to reduce social inequalities and prepare our children for future educational success for example visits to the Seaside, Outdoor Education pursuits, Local River Study and local area study. The children also have the opportunity to research matters of high importance through engaging with external agencies including Unicef, Fair Trade, conservation work at Chester Zoo etc.