Geography

Intent

At Minet Junior School, our intention is for our Geography curriculum to reflect the diverse and varied cultural backgrounds of our learners. Our students at Minet should leave us with an idea of their place in the local community, as well as their status as a global citizen, and how our curriculum as a whole is relevant to their own unique and individual cultural experience. Learning activities should therefore be designed to include and acknowledge the specific countries and cultural backgrounds that the children and their families have come from, as well as their local area and Britain as a whole. We want to ensure that geography learning for our students is rooted in global current events, contextualising what they do in lessons and ensuring that it is relevant and salient to their day to day lives. As citizens of the world, learners at Minet should be enriched by their Geography learning, gaining perspective on the relationship between the world and its inhabitants. We also consider it necessary for the children’s geography learning to use the language of their UNCRC rights, so they are continuously appraised of how these are relevant and interwoven with their learning materials. Children at Minet should, through the Geography curriculum, be supported in considering environmental issues affecting them. They should also discover how we as humans have impacted and continue to impact our environment. Finally, children should find out what they, as individuals and as part of our school, can do to minimise this impact as the agents of change for the future.

Implementation

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish and to achieve their very best.  We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensure that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. Existing knowledge is checked at the start of each new topic. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children's starting points and takes account of pupil voice. Lesson content and tasks are designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with our commitment to inclusion.   It is important that children develop the skills of a geographer by fully immersing them in all areas of the subject. The local area is fully utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world beyond their locality.

Impact

By the time pupils leave Minet Junior school they will:

• Have a growing knowledge of the world and their place in it
• Have an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
• Have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• Be fluent in complex geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
• Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop reasoned arguments to explain findings.
• Have significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity
• Have highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
• Have a passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there through reading, travel or the media
• Know that they can use their voice to express themselves and well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.