Geography
Intent
At Harpole Primary School, we expect our children to be inquisitive and to question the information they are presented with, in order to further their geographical understanding. We want children to understand where they are located within the world as well as within the British Isles; to be able to use a range of tools to understand their location and the landscapes of contrasting environments; to appreciate, describe and have a desire to conserve the differing environments of the world. Geography is an exciting, enquiry led subject that helps us better understand the people, places and environments in the world. The programme of study for Geography states “a high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.” It is a subject that seeks answers to fundamental questions such as: Where is this place? What is it like? (and why?) How and why is it changing? How does this place compare with other places? How and why are places connected? Geography draws on its 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; providing entry points to geographical conversations about the world. We describe this as ‘thinking geographically’ and explicitly teach this to our pupils through exploring maps and atlases, photographs and aerial images and exploring our local area. Our Geography curriculum will build on the Early Years goals.
Implementation
Child Initiated Learning
Our topic-based curriculum is designed to enable children to initiate and drive their own learning. The potential for overlap and revisiting topics should never be seen as a hinderance in responding to the direct opportunities presented by our pupils. By allowing teachers to have the freedom to embrace the pupil voice in their classrooms, learning is a fluid and dynamic process that blends with direct teaching of new content skills and knowledge and actively promotes curiosity and exploration of ideas and facts.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Our topic-based curriculum allows pupils to build a body of knowledge and skills with links and connections to themselves as individuals and the world around them. We believe that our curriculum should reflect the very fabric of the society in which we live; being both a window into other contexts and worlds and a mirror of our own. It enables us to validate and embrace a range of family structures, backgrounds and self-identity.
Special Educational Needs
At Harpole Primary School, our intention for special educational and/or disabilities (SEND) is to ensure that all our children receive a high quality and ambitious education regardless of need, disability or disadvantage. We believe that it is vital our pupils are equipped with the tools needed to become independent, inquisitive learners both in and out the classroom in order to be prepared for life. We will ensure that our lessons are accessible to all pupils through differentiation of resources and questions. Resources will also be adapted to ensure that all children’s needs are met.
Pupil Premium & “Disadvantaged”
Harpole Primary School does not recognise the term “disadvantaged” as a means to describe pupils supported through the Pupil Premium Grant funding or other identification measures.
At Harpole Primary School our ultimate objective for our pupils supported with additional Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) funding is the same for all our pupils.
Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and become resourceful, independent thinkers with the resilience and confidence to adapt to change and rise to challenges. The focus of our curriculum is to support all pupils to achieve that goal.
At Harpole Primary School our curriculum takes a holistic whole child approach to supporting pupils and their needs. High-quality class teaching
combined with strong pastoral support is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas (academic, social, emotional, mental health, well-being and safeguarding) in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support.
By implementing high quality teaching and strong pastoral support, we acknowledge that our strategies, support the wellbeing and good mental health of all our pupils.
Impact
At Harpole Primary, children can record their learning in a variety of ways, which is recorded within their topic books. Evidence of learning and progress is dependent on the lesson outcome; year group and the skills and knowledge being developed. This could be in the form of: photographs of practical activities, use of world maps and local maps to identify features and areas, use of digital mapping, extended writing, or evidence of field work. Our teachers rely on a range of tools to assess the knowledge and skills pupils have; their progress and development points. This includes: assessment for learning; challenge tasks; independent and group enquiry; end of unit questions and KWL grids. Marking and feedback in geography follows the schools marking and feedback policy and is used to monitor progress and impact. Throughout the course of the lesson the class teacher (and support staff where present) will move around the class, offering support/challenge where needed so that each child is receiving direct feedback during the lesson. These conversations will be recorded by writing VF at the side of the piece of work.
Within each unit, teachers will use Assessment for Learning to check the knowledge and skills being developed. Within monitoring and staff discussions, areas for further development further up the school will be identified. Progress will be checked by the geography co-ordinator along with book reviews to ensure high standards of Geography teaching.