‘You can travel the seas, poles and deserts and see nothing. To really understand the world, you need to get under the skin of the people and places. In other words, learn about geography. I can’t imagine a subject more relevant in schools. We’d all be lost without it.’  Michael Palin.

At St Benedict’s we aim to provide a high-quality geography education through a Curriculum that inspires pupils and develops a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Teaching will equip 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.  Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Our ambitious curriculum is structured cumulatively; revisiting knowledge through a sequential and enriching journey that begins in EYFS.

Aims of the Geography Curriculum

At St Benedict’s it is our intention that pupils become a little more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting substantive and disciplinary geographical knowledge.

  1. Substantive knowledge– this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content as pupils become more expert in their understanding. Misconceptions are challenged carefully and in the context of the substantive and disciplinary knowledge. In Geography, it is recommended that misconceptions are not introduced too early, as pupils need to construct a mental model in which to position new knowledge.
  1. Disciplinary knowledge– this is the use of that knowledge and how children construct understanding through processes, evidence, pattern seeking, reasoning and explaining change. We call it ‘Thinking Geographically’.
  1. Geographical analysis is developed through selecting, organising and integrating knowledge through reasoning and inference making in response to structured questions and challenges.
  1. Substantive concepts include place, space, scale, interdependence, physical and human processes, environmental impact, sustainable development, cultural awareness and cultural diversity. Concepts such as change through erosion are taught through explicit vocabulary instruction as well as through the direct content and context of the study.

Geography is built around the principles of cumulative knowledge focusing on spaces, places, scale, human and physical processes with an emphasis on how content is connected and relational knowledge acquired. An example of this is the identification of continents, such as Europe, and its relationship to the location of the UK.

The Geography curriculum equips pupils to become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental model of the subject. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented geographical knowledge. Specific and associated geographical vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Y1 to Y6. High frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught and help make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3). Each learning module in geography has a vocabulary module with teacher guidance, tasks and resources.

As well as ensuring pupils are taught key knowledge, each unit is designed to offer pupils the opportunity to develop their skills as a geographer in asking questions, planning and carrying out fieldwork, collecting and analysing information and drawing conclusions.

The Geography curriculum is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks. This powerful interrelationship between structure and research-led practice is designed to increase substantive knowledge and accelerate learning within and between study modules. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with places, spaces, scale, people, culture and processes.

 

Enrichment

Through enrichment opportunities children have first hand experiences to help gain an understanding an understanding of the world around them. St Benedict’s has a range of geographical features in our local area including; beaches, marsh lands and local urban areas. Children study their local environment enabling them to make connections and build a solid understanding of their local area and beyond.

  • The opportunity to carry out field studies- geography surrounds us and we believe experiencing it has as much value as learning about it.
  • A chance to explore what is on our doorstep.
  • Provide the children time to learn and explore through forest school sessions and local area visits.
  • The opportunity to bring geography to life through enrichment visits to sites of geographical interest and engaging with experts.

Useful Information