Geography

Rationale

“The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexities of our world.” Barack Obama

Intent

The geography curriculum promotes curiosity and a love for learning. We encourage our pupils to become independent and resilient learners in Geography. We wish for all children at St. Mary Bourne to broaden their knowledge of different cultures and promote tolerance of others. By studying Geography, pupils will understand they are global citizens as well as having the ability to impact positively on their local environment. We think about how geography plays a huge part in the movement of people and goods and how this has shaped our society today and begin to understand the world as one community.

Implementation

When our children leave St. Mary Bourne we would like them to be curious about the world. We aim to ensure that the curriculum we have developed provides them with learning opportunities that ensure progression in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. We enrich our curriculum by taking advantage of our rich, rural setting. In Geography, promote excellence by ensuring that all children:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places, including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
• are competent in the geographical skills needed to:

1. Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
2. Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs.
3. Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing.

Where appropriate, we make links with our topics and other subjects.

Impact

We ensure that children at our school are equipped with geographical skills and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in their future learning. Skills in geography are progressive and build year on year. St. Mary Bourne pupils will be able to consider their role as global citizens in supporting different communities around the world as well as the environmental impact they have on their local community.