Our School Vision

Our school is a community where each person is valued as a child of God. We are a Church of England school, inspired and guided by the life and teaching of Jesus. We work together to create a caring, friendly and safe school family, to enable the whole school community to flourish and each person reach their full God-given potential.

This document is devised to support this vision, and has the following intentions:

· Pupils are empowered to develop the hope and perseverance necessary to engage the challenges of Geography in the context of school and the wider world.

· Teaching staff seek out every opportunity to ensure that all pupils flourish in Geography lessons, developing wisdom and creativity through an ambitious and broad curriculum that challenges expectations, deepens knowledge and develops skills.

· Geography lessons are inclusive, so everyone is valued and respected – and tolerance and diversity are celebrated.

Intent

At Donnington Wood CE Junior School, we aim to ensure that our pupils flourish and become confident, curious geographers. We aim to promote a love of Geography, which encourages pupils to develop their understanding of the world and how decisions we make can have an impact on a global scale. Our Geography curriculum aims to deliver the objectives of the National Curriculum, using the key concepts of place, space, change, interconnection, scale, environment and sustainability. This allows children the opportunity to explore a variety of physical and human features of the world, as well as developing their understanding of real-life issues that affect the world we live in.

Our Geography curriculum is focused upon the following beliefs:

· Children will take an active part in Geography lessons.

· Children will enjoy exploring geographical concepts.

· Children will develop a deeper understanding of the Geography curriculum, including through the use of fieldwork opportunities.

· Children will understand the relevance of Geography in the real world.

Implementation

Our Geography curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and is delivered around our overarching themes of friendship, perseverance and hope. Children widen their understanding of the world as they progress through each year group through the delivery of our key concepts.

· We teach the National Curriculum objectives using a variety of resources, including fieldwork opportunities where possible, to ensure that children build up their learning and their geographical curiosity. This progression of knowledge is designed to build on pupils’ prior knowledge, whilst allowing them the opportunity for consolidation and to make connections between topics.

· We use real-life contexts, where possible, in our learning to ensure that pupils understand the importance and relevance of their geographical skills and knowledge in the wider world.

· Each lesson starts with an open-ended enquiry question for children to answer using the geographical knowledge and skills obtained in lessons. This allows children to celebrate their success and impact of their learning as it happens.

· A range of good quality maps are used every lesson to develop children’s understanding of scale and where places are situated within our world.

· Key vocabulary is taught explicitly at an age-appropriate level in a variety of ways to ensure children’s understanding and ability to talk like a geographer.

· Forever facts and other key knowledge and skills are revisited through the use of retrieval practice at the start of every Geography lesson. This supports children in knowing and remembering more.

Impact

By the end of Key Stage 2, we aspire that our Geography curriculum will have had the following impact on pupils:

· Children who enjoy Geography and are increasingly confident in themselves as geographers.

· Children to talk enthusiastically about their learning and who are eager to further their progress in Geography.

· Pupils will become confident and curious geographers by demonstrating the knowledge and skills specified in the National Curriculum programme of study.

· Pupils will have the ability to recall forever facts from the Geography topics they have explored.

· Pupils will have the ability to recognise relationships and make connections between concepts in Geography, and other curriculum subjects, as well as understanding the relevance of Geography within the real world.