Geography
Subject Lead – Mrs A Chisman
At St Joseph’s it is our intention that pupils become a little more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting substantive and disciplinary geographical knowledge.
- Substantive knowledge– this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content as pupils become more expert in their understanding. Misconceptions are challenged carefully and in the context of the substantive and disciplinary knowledge. In Geography, it is recommended that misconceptions are not introduced too early, as pupils need to construct a mental model in which to position new knowledge.
- Disciplinary knowledge– this is the use of that knowledge and how children construct understanding through processes, evidence, pattern seeking, reasoning and explaining change. We call it ‘Thinking Geographically’.
- Geographical analysis is developed through selecting, organising and integrating knowledge through reasoning and inference making in response to structured questions and challenges.
- Substantive concepts include place, space, scale, interdependence, physical and human processes, environmental impact, sustainable development, cultural awareness and cultural diversity. Concepts such as change through erosion are taught through explicit vocabulary instruction as well as through the direct content and context of the study.
A guiding principle of our Geography scheme of learning is that each study draws upon prior learning. For example, in the EYFS, pupils may learn about People, Culture and Communities or The Natural World through daily activities and exploring their locality and immediate environment. This is revisited and positioned so that new and potentially abstract content in Year 1 can be put into a known location and make it easier to cognitively process. Pupils in EYFS explore globes and world locations through their curiosity corners, making links to where animals live. This substantive knowledge is used to remember and position the locations of continents and oceans, with more sophisticated knowledge. High volume and deliberate practice is essential for pupils to remember and retrieve substantive knowledge and use their disciplinary knowledge to explain and articulate what they know. This means pupils make conscious connections and think hard, using what they know.
Geography is built around the principles of cumulative knowledge focusing on spaces, places, scale, human and physical processes with an emphasis on how content is connected and relational knowledge acquired. An example of this is the identification of continents, such as Europe, and its relationship to the location of the UK.
The Geography curriculum equips pupils to become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental model of the subject. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented geographical knowledge. Specific and associated geographical vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Y1 to Y6. High frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught and help make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3). Each learning module in geography has a vocabulary module with teacher guidance, tasks and resources.
The Geography curriculum is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks. This powerful interrelationship between structure and research-led practice is designed to increase substantive knowledge and accelerate learning within and between study modules. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with places, spaces, scale, people, culture and processes.
The aims of the Curriculum for Geography are to:
- develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both
terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and
how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes - understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical
features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial
variation and change over time - are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through
experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical
processes - interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams,
globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through
maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
The subject content for Geography is:
Key Stage One
- Locational knowledge
- name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the
United Kingdom and its surrounding sea - Place knowledge
- understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and
physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a
contrasting non-European country - Human and physical geography
- identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of
hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South
Poles - use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:
- key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea,
ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather - key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port,
harbour and shop - Geographical skills and fieldwork
- use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries,
as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage - use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and
directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location
of features and routes on a map - use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic
human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic
symbols in a key - use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and
its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.
Key Stage Two
- Locational knowledge
- locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of
Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions,
key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and
their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features
(including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand
how some of these aspects have changed over time - identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern
Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and
Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and
night) - Place knowledge
- understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and
physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country,
and a region within North or South America - Human and physical geography
- describe and understand key aspects of:
physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers,
mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle - human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity
including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy,
food, minerals and water - Geographical skills and fieldwork
- use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and
describe features studied - use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key
(including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United
Kingdom and the wider world - use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical
features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and
graphs, and digital technologies
In order to achieve the above, we follow a specific Curriculum for Geography. Therefore, our curriculum is is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of geographical disciplines. Each block draws upon prior learning. Our pupils become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental knowledge of the subject. We teach our pupils the substantive geographical concepts of Location, Place, Human and Physical and Geographical Skills and Fieldwork. We help our pupils become a little more expert in the subject by teaching the disciplinary geographical knowledge through Place and Space, Scale and Connection, Physical and Human Geography, Environment and Sustainability and Culture and Diversity (Uniqueness).
In addition, Specific and associated geographical vocabulary is planned sequentially and
cumulatively from Year 1 to Year 6. High frequency, multiple meaning words (tier 2) are taught and help make sense of subject specific words (tier 3). Each learning module in geography has a vocabulary module which aims to further broaden our pupils’ extensive vocabulary.
Click below to view our Geography Long Term Overview:
