Intent
At Farsley Springbank Primary School, our intent is that our teaching of geography will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and deep understanding of both the human and physical world around them. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place within it. We do this to ensure our children have the platform to become responsible local and global citizens.
The curriculum is designed to ensure that teaching equips pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth's key physical and human processes. As pupils progress through the school, their growing knowledge of the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that explain how the Earth's features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
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. In turn, we hope that this exposure to different places, environments and cultures broadens their horizons whilst equipping them with the tools that they need for further education and beyond.
Implementation
Geography at Farsley Springbank is taught through Learning Challenges throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning. Some Learning Challenges have a cross-curricular link with history to enable children to gain both a geographical and historical understanding of the world, giving them a deeper, more rounded view of the world. Subject leaders have identified the key knowledge and skills of each Learning Challenge and these are mapped across the school, ensuring that knowledge builds progressively and that children develop skills systematically. Existing knowledge is recapped and reviewed at the beginning of each Learning Challenge and subsequent lessons. This ensures that teaching is informed by children's starting points. Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with the school's commitment to inclusion. At the end of each Learning Challenge, key knowledge is reviewed by the children and used to answer the over-arching Learning Challenge question. Geography provision is well resourced to support effective teaching and learning. The school grounds and local area are fully utilised to develop the children's geographical skills, with many opportunities for learning outside the classroom.
The geography Learning Challenges in EYFS and KS1 introduce children to basic map skills and provides them with a breadth of knowledge about the world, which is then deepened and extended throughout KS2. In KS1 the prime focus of the geography curriculum is to build their awareness of contrasting countries and culture through the comparison of physical and human features, comparing these to their own lives and home environment. This is built upon in KS2, where children deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.
Our geography curriculum helps develop and encourage our children to be local and global citizens. One of the key drivers of this is the school's links to United Nation's Rights Respecting program for which the school has earned Silver accreditation. Each Learning Challenge is linked to rights that the children learn about from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We want pupils to develop respect for other people different to themselves and the environment. As pupils study geography, they encounter different societies and cultures, which helps them recognise how nations rely on each other. It can inspire them to think about their own place in the world, their values and their rights and how to respect other people and the environment. There are also lots of opportunities across the school to campaign, which is linked to the children's geography learning and the goals of the Rights Respecting program.
Here are some examples of our geography learning journeys.