Intent
 

At Cooper Perry Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. We encourage our children to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. The geography curriculum at Cooper Perry enables 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. By nature, Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure that teaching equips 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. 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. Our geographical knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide scaffolded and purposeful through exciting and engaging topics.
 

The aims of teaching geography in our school are:

• To inspire children’s 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.

• To enable children to know about the location of the world’s continents, countries, cities, seas and oceans.

• To develop in children the skills of interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

• To help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes it location and can change over time.

• To provide opportunities to study mathematics across the curriculum through geography lesson

 

 

Implementation

 

At Cooper Perry, Geography is taught in alternating half-termly blocks, so that children achieve depth of understanding. Our teachers work together to plan collaborative topics, ensuring that promoting a passion for history is at the centre of all they do.

 

Our Geography curriculum is made up of engaging topics that inspire wonder and awe amongst our children. When presented to the children, our topics are inspired by an overarching question and key themes are identified so that robust links can be made with other curriculum areas. Throughout the sequence of lessons, teachers plan and deliver opportunities to develop both Procedural Knowledge (skills) and Propositional Knowledge (content and facts). Lessons are structured around precise learning objectives selected from our Progression of Skills. Teachers identify the key vocabulary for a topic and for specific lessons, ensuring that it is effectively introduced to the children and referred to throughout the topic.  Children will access a range of resources to acquire learning through atlases, maps, digital technology, books and photographs. Google Earth maps and satellite view are often used initially to add immediacy and a real-life context to lessons. Using a range of secondary resources to develop their knowledge and understanding is integral to their learning.

 

At Cooper Perry, we believe in the importance of providing exciting, engaging and memorable experiences for our children, and these are incorporated in our Geography teaching and learning. Our thematic approach means our learning environments are transformed to reflect the themes and content of our current topic and ‘WOW Day’s are planned to enhance the ‘buzz’ around learning. Cross-curricular links are specifically planned for, with strong links between the history curriculum and writing lessons, art and DT projects.

 

Wherever possible, we make links within and between geographical topics to deepen our children’s understanding and we make comparisons with our local area.

 

 

Impact

 

By the time children leave Cooper Perry Primary School, they will:

• Have an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
• Have an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
• Have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• Be fluent in complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
• Have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
• Have significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity as shown in interpretations and representations of the subject matter.
• Be able to utilise fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques to find out about the world.
• Have a passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
• Have the ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in robust knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.