Geography
At Goldfield, we strive for all our children to be curious about the world around them. Our curriculum is carefully designed to inspire the children to be curious about both the local surroundings of Tring, the United Kingdom and the wider world that we live in. We intend for the children to see through a ‘window to the world’ and to explore and understand different cultures and ways of living to their own. At Goldfield Infants’ and Nursery School we intend for the Geography element of our school curriculum to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. We hope to inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
We want Geography to enrich other areas of the curriculum, SMSC and British Values.
Geography is delivered through a variety of topics, which we select to excite and motivate our young children, giving them plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills along the way.
We want our pupils to develop their geographical skills of identifying seasonal changes, looking at similarities and differences of human and physical geography of a small area of the local environment, compare life in other countries to life in Tring. We enable to children to learn how to ask complex geographical questions and give them the skills of being able to use maps, globes and aerial images.
The curriculum ambitions in Nursery and Reception inform the teaching of Geography in EYFS, focusing on our local environment and places that are relevant to the children. The children are given the opportunity to talk about places they have been to in their own lives through sharing their Focus Child photographs. In our Early Years, the children are given the opportunity to look at changes in the seasons and weather through their regular welly walks and Forest School sessions. In Key Stage One, the children are taught through topics and Seasonal Change days four times a year. To support our teaching of Geography, we also use the KAPOW scheme of learning, and adapt in places to suit our school e.g. making links to our local area.
Key knowledge, skills and vocabulary for Geography have been mapped across EYFS and KS1 to ensure progression between year groups. As children move through the school they revisit concepts with increasing levels of depth.
The outcomes of the broad teaching of Geography across the school is seen in the children’s learning journals, their Geography books and through various displays that showcase their work throughout the year.
The impact of the Geography curriculum is monitored throughout the year through assessment opportunities including:
End of topic teacher assessments
Subject Leader monitoring – learning walks, book looks and lesson observations
Staff meetings to discuss curriculum and children’s learning
Pupil voice
Teacher voice – staff meetings, INSETS
At Goldfield we envisage the curriculum impacting the children in the following ways. They will:
To be curious about Tring, the United Kingdom and the wider world. We want them to be confident in asking questions and commenting on what they notice.
Be able to compare where we live with other parts of the world and talk confidently about what they have learnt.
To have a breadth of geographical vocabulary.
To have a good locational knowledge.
To confidently describe seasonal and daily weather changes.
To be able to use directional language and devise and use simple maps.
Meet the relevant Early Learning Goals at the end of EYFS (Reception) and the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum for Geography at the end of Key Stage 1.