Geography at Elm Hall Primary School
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "Karli Forbes(2)")
My name is Karli Forbes and I'm the Geography leader for Elm Hall Primary School. Geography is an integral part of our curriculum where children are encouraged to be inquisitive, curious, inspired and fascinated by the world around them. Now more than ever, it is important to equip children to be Global Citizens: to develop an awareness of the wider world and their place within it, encourage them to take an active role in the community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer. Our children will become passionate about protecting the environment and willingly engage in action to make our local area a nicer place to live. Children can feel quite powerless when it comes to having a positive impact on the world around them: we aim to show them however, that small changes on their behalf can have big impacts on environmental issues. We encourage our children to ask questions about the world around them and carry out investigations to answer these questions. Teaching should 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. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, not just for our children’s time at Elm Hall Primary, but also into their further education and beyond into adult life.
This is how we teach Geography,
In Geography, our curriculum is shaped by our school vision which enables all children, regardless of background, ability or additional needs to flourish becoming the very best version of themselves that they can possibly be. Our curriculum is delivered through highly effective ‘quality first teaching’. Our teachers present subject matter clearly, promote appropriate discussion about what is being taught, check learners’ understanding systematically and identify misconceptions accurately through targeted questioning and provide clear, direct feedback in real time. Teachers have worked collaboratively to place units in year groups that are matched to the maturity and conceptual understanding for that age group. Year groups also have a balance of place studies, human geography and physical geography to give a breadth of knowledge. A series of stimulating lessons are planned, with clear knowledge and skills-based learning objectives and subject-specific vocabulary. Teachers assess learning in geography against knowledge and skills-based learning objectives within unit overviews.
Geography is mostly taught in topics although not every topic will contain geography. Year groups have a balance of place studies, human geography and physical geography to give a breadth of knowledge. There are close links with our Social Studies curriculum as we believe that key issues such as climate change should be taught across the school. If we are to create Global Citizens, we believe that our pupils must be up to date on the latest issues that are impacting our planet. Looking at projects such as ‘Teaspoons of Change’ is a meaningful way to teach our pupils about the impact that they can have in protecting our environment. Our aim is to bring geography alive!
What we have learnt
Our well-planned Geography curriculum ensures that children are competent in the geographical skills needed to collect, analyse and communicate data, and to interpret a range of geographical sources, including maps, globes and aerial photographs. Children are able to communicate information in a variety of ways including maps, numerical and quantitative skills and a range of literacy skills which are all useful skills for future careers in town planning, residential surveying and cartography for example.
Through the breadth and depth that our Geography curriculum offers, our children are provided with a broad knowledge of the world they live in, and understand, as responsible citizens, how they need to care and preserve the planet for future generations.
Our subject ambassadors are:
Alfie (Year 4)
Kian R (Year 5)
Eva-Rose (Yr 6)
Check out the Elm Hall Geography Curriculum below:
Have a look at how we progress geographical vocabulary throughout the school:
