Geography

Vision and Principles 

At Drake Primary School, our Geography curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Are inspired to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world.
• Understand their values and respect other people's values, cultures and traditions.
• Have an understanding of local, regional and global environments.
• Are active participants in ensuring the sustainability of the planet.

At Drake Primary School we believe that Geography helps to inspire global citizens by exploring their own place in the world. It helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We aim to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. 

Geography at Drake inspires children’s curiosity about their local environment, the world, and its people. Through investigation and explicit teaching, children will gain a greater understanding of the importance of the world around them and become active participants in ensuring the sustainability of the planet. 

In Geography, we will:

• Have a curiosity and fascination about the world.
• Develop knowledge about diverse places, people, resources, natural and physical processes.
• Pursue a line of enquiry to answer geographical questions.
• Understand where we live in relation to the rest of the world.
• Compare our findings and reach an answer to a question.
• Compare the similarities and differences between places and countries.
• Research information and present what we have learnt.
• Give views on places, fieldwork and features of the world around us.
• Use geographical skills and techniques through fieldwork, E.g. map skills
• Apply skills and processes to finding, selecting, analysing and interpreting primary and secondary sources of evidence.

Geography Curriculum 

In every year group, the curriculum is mapped into themes with learning objectives covering the four curriculum areas:

• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography
• Geographical skills and fieldwork 

The themes are planned to systematically progress children’s geographical skills and knowledge with an emphasis on technical vocabulary. Children study the geography of their local environment and progress onto global geography. 

At Drake Primary School, our Geography curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils will be assessed:

• At the beginning of each theme.
• Through discussions, class work, projects and quizzes.

In Geography, teachers assess at the beginning of a theme. This allows the teachers to uncover any misconceptions, see the strengths in their class and spot any gaps in knowledge. Once the teacher has analysed the successes, gaps and misconceptions, the teacher adapts their teaching to suit the needs of their class. The teacher assesses children’s current understanding and puts in place what is needed for further learning. During Geography lessons, ideas are discussed, misconceptions corrected and ideas tested. Talk is valued in Geography lessons, whereby the teacher guides children’s understanding and children are encouraged to use talk effectively to guide peer understanding. At the end of the theme, the children are assessed with a low stakes Geography quiz. This quiz score, alongside the content of exercise books and contributions to class Geography discussions, informs teacher assessment. Teachers input half termly assessment data for their class onto our tracking software, Pupil Asset. Data analysis is undertaken by the Geography lead to spot patterns, trends, and to check we are meeting the needs of our pupils.

We have an active eco-council which promotes geographical and environmental projects and capture the issues that are most important to their peers.