‘Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?’

Michael Palin

Intent

At Chivenor Primary School – we are geographers. We aim to provide a high-quality geography education that will inspire pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about the local area of Castle Vale and Birmingham so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills and positively encourages pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Our 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 Griffins, children will be equipped with transferable skills that they can apply in everyday life and life beyond Chivenor.

Through high quality teaching we aim for our learners to develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places ; understand key physical and human geographical features of the world; collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork and interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including interactive maps, diagrams, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems.

Implementation

At Chivenor our Geography curriculum is overseen by teachers within our Geography HUB to promote continuous improvement by reviewing, evaluating and sharing best practice . All planning is undertaken to inspire the children through overarching themes. It is informed by two fundamental, complimentary tenets: 1) to develop technical skills and 2) to acquire geographical knowledge. Teachers plan lessons following our medium term planning documents. Through this approach, lessons allow children to build upon prior knowledge and make cross curricular links.
Continuous CPD and quality first teaching ensures we deliver high quality teaching and learning which identifies gaps, addresses misconceptions and moves learning on.
We offer a range of carefully planned learning opportunities to widen our children’s horizons which include: Residentials,museum visits, local walks and forest school to enhance the children’s understanding of the world around them and beyond their locality.

EYFS:
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of geography, people and communities through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World’. Geography is effectively taught through their wider curriculum lessons and through their enhanced learning provision and environment. Children learn about features of their own environment such as school, home, community and their local area through first-hand experiences and learn how environments may differ through the sharing of books, stories, poems, small world play, role play and visits. Children are given time to discuss, comment and ask questions about what they observe about the world around them and are encouraged to be active learners and explore their interests further.

Impact

By the time our children leave Chivenor School we expect that they will have a vast geographical knowledge and wide vocabulary with which to explain geographical concepts. They will understand geographical data and be confident to analyse it , applying their questioning skills when appropriate. Following their research, we expect them to develop reasoned arguments to explain their findings and to express their well balanced opinions regarding current issues in society and within the environment.

We would like our children to leave with an excellent knowledge of where places are; a passion for the subject and a real sense of curiosity to travel in later life and find out more about the world and the people who live there.