Intent

At St John’s Primary Academy, we are geographers! As a school we promote the love of geography. We want children to have no limits to what their ambitions are and to grow up wanting to be cartographers, town planners, conservationists, or weather forecasters. St John’s Primary Academy believe that geography helps to stimulate curiosity and provide answers to questions about the physical 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.

We want to ensure that through geography, pupils can explore the relationship between the Earth and its people through the study of place, space and environment. We also intend for children to become passionate and knowledgeable about our local community and beyond, by learning through experiences in practical and fieldwork activities.

Implementation

In order to inspire children’s curiosity about the world, interest and creativity, we are enthusiastic about geography and encourage children to explore and ask questions with every opportunity they have. At St John’s Primary Academy, geography is taught every term. Lesson content and tasks are designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with our commitment to inclusion.

We enrich the curriculum through providing inspiring and engaging experiences to help children make connections and deepen their understanding of their learning. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world beyond their locality.

Impact

The impact of our geography curriculum is measured in a variety of ways: questioning during lesson time, marking children’s written work, listening to child-led discussion, interviewing pupils across the school about their learning, book trawls and using images/videos of children’s practical learning. Along with ongoing quizzes and retrieval practice, we assess children’s progress in each unit so that gaps in knowledge and skills can be adressed.

By end of the geography curriculum at St John’s, our children will:

• Have a growing knowledge of the world and their place in it.
• Have a wider vocabulary of geographical terms.
• Aspire to discover more about the world, through reading, travel or the media.
• Know that they can use their voice to express themselves and their opinions.
• Develop their geographical skills, such as, evaluation, creativity, problem solving and enquiry