Bradshaw Primary SchoolGeography
The Geography curriculum at Bradshaw has been designed in accordance with the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum and teaches an understanding of places and environments. The curriculum is progressive across the years and the learning within the units is broken down into small, sequenced chunks. Through their work in geography, pupils learn about their local area, and they compare their life in this area with that in other regions in the United Kingdom and in the rest of the world. As pupils progress through the school, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge and skills are progressive and sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that provide explanation of how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected, and change over time.
At Bradshaw we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Pupils are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, its interconnectedness and their place in it. The geography curriculum at Bradshaw enables pupils 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. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.
We seek to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives, equipping them well for further education and beyond.
The Oddizzi scheme is used to allow teachers to plan inspiring lessons, at least one aspect of geography will be taught each term through weekly sessions that are complemented by other subjects such as Topic and Art and Design. Mantle of the Expert will be used to further enrich children’s learning in geography to fully immerse themselves in the content of the topic. This will allow children to acquire new and deepen their understanding in a meaningful way.
Planning includes a range of hands on experiences for each topic covered such as map reading/orienteering, field work and a variety of cultural experiences. To boost the experience of geography, pupils will make the best use of technology to enthuse pupils and provide relevance. Opportunities for children to apply a range of writing skills across a variety of genres should encompass each topic. Alongside this, at Bradshaw we have a strong focus on vocabulary acquisition. Pupils are introduced to purposeful and ambitious vocabulary giving them the opportunity to develop prior and new learning allowing them to apply what they have learnt using a wide vocabulary of geographical terms.
A typical lesson at Bradshaw includes recap and recall through daily challenges at the start of the lesson, including questions from previous learning in current lessons and the learning from the previous year group. The learning objective and success criteria is shared with the class outlining the intent of the lesson. The vocabulary and definitions for the lesson are highlighted and put into context. Pupils are encouraged to make links with prior learning. The main content of the lesson is explored and discussed, pupils are encouraged to ask questions and any misconceptions can be addressed. Pupils work in groups, pairs or individually on tasks, which offer challenge and the opportunity to practise and apply learning. The tasks are carefully planned to push learners towards a deeper understanding of the lesson content.
In EYFS and Year One pupils are encouraged to complete planned independent tasks in provision linked to the learning which offer challenge.
At the end of the lesson pupils are given time to reflect against the learning objective and share their understanding from the lesson. Teachers ask Open-ended questions to probe and expanded thinking and processing of information. By discussing the questions in groups, pupils have the opportunity to learn from a variety of perspectives. At the end of units quizzes are completed to inform teachers of pupils understanding and attainment; this supports teachers to identify pupils understanding and to inform the next sequence of lessons and allows pupils the opportunity to assess their own learning.
Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
At Bradshaw, teachers have high expectations of all pupils, they have a holistic understanding of pupils needs and development, and they look for ways to support each of them to achieve the learning objectives. Lessons are adapted to ensure all pupils experience a wide range of carefully planned geography lessons, allowing all pupils to have equal access to a rich, broad and curriculum. They take relevant steps to remove barriers and make adaptations whilst regularly assessing and providing up to date and appropriate provision to support pupils learning needs. This includes; chunking learning into small steps, explicit instructions, additional scaffolds, modelling skills and learning and aids to support communication and language development. This ensure all pupils including those with special educational needs and disabilities are provided with work that challenges them, and all pupils make good progress.
Assessment
Learning is assessed throughout lessons to inform planning for subsequent lessons and units of work. Teachers assessment for learning includes questioning, formative feedback and pupils response during and after lessons. Outcomes will be measured by assessing against enquiry skills and geographical content, evident in writing, verbal discussions and participation in class activities.
Daily challenges and end of unit quizzes inform teachers of pupils understanding and attainment at the end of each lesson; this supports teachers to identify pupils who are not making age related expectations after each unit of work.
Assessment data supports the subject leader in highlighting areas of the curriculum that require improvement and identifies pupils who are consistently not meeting age related expectations. The data is further analysed indicating any common trends. The subject leader actions targets and areas of improvement at regular intervals.