Geography

 

Shaping our geography curriculum:

We follow the National Curriculum. We plan geography lessons so there is an opportunity to keep returning to concepts and knowledge across phases. Lessons have a clear focus on direct, instructional teaching and interactive oral work with both the whole class and smaller groups. Our geographic curriculum emphasises geographical knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts. We compare our local area with other areas of Britain. We aim for our children to have an understanding of the world and their place in the world. We will raise awareness of environmental issues so that our children are aware of the impact they can have. As we study spaces and places in locations around the world, we will broaden our children’s horizons, increase their interest and knowledge in other places and the different lives that other’s live.

 

Geography is taught through four whole school topics, where children from year 1 to year 6 study geography topics at the same time, enabling children to keep returning to knowledge and concepts. The topics are:

Our Home
Voyage and Discovery
Our Planet
Making A Difference

 

Within each topic, concepts become more complex but allow opportunities for the children to make connections with prior knowledge.

 

We use concepts to give meaning to our mathematics:

 

In all subjects at Barlow Hall we use six Thinking Concepts:

Continuity and Change over Time
Inter-relationships
Perspectives
Similarities and Differences
Analysing and Interpreting
Cause and Effect

 

Our geography subject concepts are:

Space
Place
Environment

 

Our geography knowledge:

Comparing: Australia (Year 1&2), Africa (Y3 & 4), Asia (Y5&6) to UK
Comparing Chorlton (Y1 & 2) to Whaley Bridge (Y3 & 4) and Canna (small Scottish Island, Y5 & 6))
Antarctica (Y1& 2)
Europe (Y3 & 4)
The Americas (Y5 & 6)
Weather in Britain and around the world (Y1 & 2)
Rivers, coasts and oceans (Y3 & 4)
Natural disasters (Y5 & 6)
Natural resources (Y1 & 2)
How lives are affected by the environment (Y3 & 4)
Inequalities in distributions around the world (Y5 & 6)
Recycling and looking after the local environment (Y1 & 2)
Deforestation and endangered animals (Y3 & 4)
Air pollution, O-zone depletion and climate change (Y5 & 6)

 

Our curriculum is designed so children are taught the knowledge then use their knowledge. We build knowledge from one year to another, moving from a basic understanding to an advanced model where understanding is applied to fluency and then a deep and automatic understanding. In our lessons we build on prior knowledge and link back and forwards to embed our knowledge. We return to key concepts so that are children know more and remember more.