Intent

At Beechwood, we want our pupils to think for themselves and care for others. Through our Geography learning, pupils can think critically about the world around them; constantly questioning why things are happening in the world around them. In Geography, pupils also consider how we need to care for the world. We want pupils to understand the impact of climate change, population and the actions of people, whilst also understanding how we can reduce this impact and help the environment in a positive way. 

From EYFS, up to Year 6, our children are taught the essential knowledge and skills taken from the Early Years Framework 2021 and the National Curriculum 2014. Our well-planned journey through the geography curriculum helps our pupils to build upon their prior learning and apply past knowledge to new situations; we are passionate about ensuring that our children’s learning transfers to their long-term memory. To ensure that this happens we constantly revisit concepts and themes both within year groups and subjects and across year groups and different subjects where applicable.

Implementation

As soon as children come to our school, they are encouraged to explore the world around them by looking at similarities, differences, patterns and change. Lessons are taught to encourage the children to think like a geographer, to develop curiosity about the world around them and how is it continually changing, whilst also inspiring our children to present what they have learnt in a range of different styles. At Beechwood we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. The geography curriculum at Beechwood enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

At the beginning of each topic, through our defining in context maps, children are able to convey what they know already as well as what they would like to find out. Children are constantly exposed to local and world maps securing prior knowledge from previous year groups. This informs the programme of study and also ensures that lessons are relevant and take account of children’s different starting points. Fieldwork skills are developed and enhanced through planned access to the local area, including our own school grounds with the forest and pond which enables them to embed their observational skills. Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills for each topic and these are mapped across the school, ensuring that knowledge and skills build progressively. Geography draws on a vast range of vocabulary to identify and name places, the features within them and the human and physical processes at work there. Such core knowledge provides the building blocks of deeper explanation and understanding; therefore we have a key focus on the vocabulary throughout each topic.

Impact

By using retrieval tasks at the start of each lesson, as well as define in context maps and consistent questioning, we are able to assess the impact of our teaching and learning in Geography. This then informs our next steps. 

Through our in in-depth approach, our pupils have a good knowledge of the world around them and show curiosity about their role in the world. Our use of field-work and outdoor learning means that all pupils leave Beechwood with first-hand knwoledge of the local area as well as the knowledge they need to think for themselves.