Geography
Belong – Committed – Love – Faith – Joy
Subject Statement of Intent
At Holy Rosary we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops and understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; 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. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Holy Rosary and also to their further education and beyond.
The geography curriculum at Holy Rosary aims to enable all children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Our children should also know how Geography reflects and shapes our history and how it contributes to the cultures of our world.
We aim for all pupils to:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
- Understand geographical processes that form key physical and human geographical features of the world
- Understand how these processes are interdependent and how they bring change over time
- Be able to collect, analyse and communicate a range of data gathered through fieldwork
- Interpret a range of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.
Geography is taught as the main key focus for two weeks during each curriculum block unit. We implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum and ensuring that coverage of the National Curriculum is complete. In Foundation Stage, Geography is taught through Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
What we teach at Holy Rosary:
Key knowledge
Progression
The Geography policy can be found in the Policy section of the website, or by clicking here.
Assessment
The Geography curriculum at Holy Rosary is based upon the National Curriculum, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills and taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of key knowledge and skills document. Teachers can use this document to plan their geography lessons suitable to their class’s interests. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
In Foundation Stage, Geography is assessed using the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters. This is recorded using Insight and Tapestry.
In KS1 and 2 class teachers assess before, during and after each unit.
Weekly quizzes are compiled by teachers and used to ensure recall and retrieval of the key knowledge.
Geography is assessed using concept maps to identify what children have learnt and data is imputed into Insight Tracker.
Geography learning gallery:
Here is some fantastic learning from the children at Holy Rosary:
- This includes some super learning from our early years children, discovering ‘All around the world’.
- Year five collectively creating a letter full of knowledge about their recent topic of North and South America
- Wow! Year three have created a super representation of the water cycle
- Year six have shown off their map skills
- Year four have discovered lines of latitude, longitude and the equator!
Check back for the latest geography news and events throughout the year!
Here is some of the fun that we have been having at Geography club this year.
In the Autumn and Spring term, KS1 have taken part in ‘Dance Around the World club’
– They have been able to learn about traditional dances starting with England and leading all the way around the world to China and India! Additionally, they have also been learning to be inspired by dances linking to places and weather. For example, city dance or the North Pole.
During Summer term, KS2 have been taking part in our Geography research club. They have been creating their own Geography fact file book about anywhere in the world that inspires them!
On Monday 20th June, all children at Holy Rosary took part in a Geography skills day. We started by looking at inspirational geographers from the past and present day then we completed different activities using mapping, field work, communication and enquiry skills.
Look at the images to see some of the activities we got up to in each class:
Foundation created maps and completed a skill based eye spy
Year One drew a sketch map of Holy Rosary and tried to use navigational instructions
Year Two did a super job of using compass points to navigate and finding Oldham landmarks on a map
Year Three completed a traffic survey then compared to a road in Edinburgh
Year Four looked at longitude and latitude and found human and physical geography on our school grounds
Year Five looked at a case study of plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean
Year Six used OS maps to find out how far school is from different landmarks in Manchester
What our children say about Geography at Holy Rosary:
Y1- Tristian said that Geography is his favourite subject. He likes to see where we are on a map and find different places he enjoys going to.
Y2- Talia says that Geography lets her find out all about the world, it helps her to learn about and see new places. Thomas says it can sometimes be challenging, but he really enjoys his lessons!
Y3- Chloe says that Geography makes her feel adventurous. She would love to visit some of the places she has learnt about. Toby has said that he has got much better at using maps and he can use them to help him learn about the world.
Y5- Olivia and Oskar have discussed how much they have enjoyed learning about different places in the world- in particularly the similarities and differences to where we live, along with learning about different cultures.
Y6- Benedict has discussed all of the features he has learnt about in Geography. He says he has had fun in year 6 learning about different terrains, mountains and volcanoes. Jessica has said that she has loved being challenged to learn about the world and her learning is always interesting.