Mayfield Primary SchoolGeography: Vision
GEOGRAPHY LEADER
Mr Taylor
'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'
What is Geography?
How do geographers work? What skills do they need and how do they think?
We have set out in these two website pages how we consider these questions with our children by mapping out and delivering a clear, consistent and challenging curriculum for our children to meet their needs. You can download copies of every central document at the base of the relevant pages (VISION or CURRICULUM OVERVIEW) in PDF format. The subject guide and policy itself can be found at the base of this page.
To take a look at our curriculum overview page CLICK HERE.
Our Vision For Geography
At Mayfield, we believe that a high quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We believe that there can be few things more fundamental than learning about the ‘earth as our home’ and our understanding of it. Geography, when taught well, should fascinate and inspire children and nourish curiosity. Geography also deepens understanding of many contemporary challenges – climate change, food security, energy choices. As a subject, it impacts upon every aspect of our children’s lives and plays a crucial role in developing caring and understanding citizens of tomorrow. It is a challenging but essential vision!
At Mayfield, we want children to realise that geography is about them, growing up in their world. We want to build on children’s interests and experiences but also find ways to challenge and excite them with content that might be beyond their immediate horizon or experiences. We carefully select projects which reflect the needs of our children - ones which, consider our unique locality and wider region, but also take them beyond the local area to explore the UK and the wider world, to develop a passion for learning so that they leave us excited about geography as a subject.
How We Plan For, And Teach, Geography
When planning our geography curriculum, we have thought about its distinctive character as a discipline and ensured that we have woven the concepts that are fundamental to geographical thinking into our curriculum. Skills needed to be a geographer are taught progressively. Concepts are built upon, learning is revisited and children’s locational and place knowledge is built on year on year and form a constant thread. Five disciplinary concepts form broader, recurring themes running through the studies - two of which (Fieldwork and Map Reading) are highly, distinctive and prominent within our planning and resourcing.
Geography is taught through termly projects – children complete three units over a year. Teachers are clear about what they need children to learn and how this builds on prior learning. We draw on the expertise of The Geographical Association to ensure our units are well planned and use this organisation to develop our teachers’ subject knowledge and their ability to find and locate appropriate and quality supporting resources.
Fieldwork is a statutory part of the National Curriculum and is undertaken throughout our seven year journey. Our geography curriculum ensures children engage regularly with the outside world and develop skills in meaningful and current contexts. We make extensive use of our immediate and local area as it offers quite a unique combination of physical and human characteristics in its design. First hand experiences are really important for our children at Mayfield as many often lack that broader awareness of the world around them. Fieldwork ensures children are engaging with this wider world, managing risks, navigating real landscapes and gathering data for real purposes.
Through our geography curriculum, we have thought about key substantive concepts/threads that run through our projects. These are: Place; Location; Climate; Natural Environments; Population - Migration - Trade - Tourism; Building Environments, Settlements & Land Use. They are revisited over time and add to the cohesiveness of our curriculum. Geography’s presence is maintained through the position of Geography Stations in each classroom, whilst the profile of geographical reward, achievement and celebration throughout the school year is maintained via the roles of our Student Subject Champions, Subject Celebrations and Subject Achievement Displays. Rewards always have a specific eye upon personal progress rather than summative attainment. Geography continues via our enrichment, wider curriculum opportunity: The Boot Room which runs across the year.
How We Assess Geography Learning
The impact of our geography curriculum can be seen in the children’s work and responses to learning via: books; celebration assemblies; display boards; drama/performance in our ABC Theatre. The detailed planning outlines the main learning objectives and Big Questions that the children will explore and answer during their learning. Children have Learning Journeys for each unit, which outline what they will be learning, how this builds on previous learning and what the next steps in learning are. Learning is revisited regularly. When teachers start new projects, they recap upon prior learning and use our recurring concepts to deepen children’s understanding and knowledge of geography. The opportunity to evaluate and reflect on their learning is planned for regularly to enable the children to se how their learning is progressing through the use of Brain Gym, Quizzes and Self-Quizzes. Children’s learning is assessed informally in each lesson and teachers plan responsively for next steps - often using the aforementioned strategies. These activities are also used at the end of a project and help to provide evidence for summative judgements made using the Key Milestones Assessment Document. At the end of the year, class teachers use the children’s recorded work and assessments to make a judgement as to whether each child is working at the expected standard. We use Project Posters to aid memory retention. The most frequently used strategy is our Brain Gym opportunities which are devised to hold some of the activities highlighted above but above all else as a planned opportunity for daily review.
How We Adapt Learning, And Record Outcomes, In Geography
The subject leader has created Learning Journeys to assist with progression and knowledge in each subject. They act as a central support for session and activity preparation and are designed for regular use with the children as determined by the class teacher. Above all they provide a spine for teachers and supporting adults that can then be personalised and adapted to meet the starting point needs of the children in each class. These can be most notably deployed during Brain Gym and work alongside our Geography Stations.
Ways of demonstrating progress and outcomes must be adaptable to suit the needs of learners and the requirements of the subject. Therefore each subject has its own bespoke way of gathering evidence from learners. Otherwise recording work becomes a barrier to learning rather than a chance to celebrate children’s achievements and specialist skills and knowledge in areas where they may otherwise excel.
In Geography, children’s work is gathered in:
Individual Exercise Books & Verbal Presentations of Work
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A Geography Vocabulary
A core Geography Glossary has been created for the children across school. The vocabulary is progressive from EYFS onwards and at all times retains vocabulary previously introduced. We have chosen this language based upon the perspective of being a geographer considering the broader concepts and skills ahead of ‘project specific terms’. These are present around the Geography Stations in the learning spaces.
Specific project based geography terminology is highlighted within the body of each session and adults discuss this new terminology linked to the project being studied at the appropriate time. It is not expected that these terms are permanently added to the vocabulary for ‘being a geographer’, although we clearly aspire for the children to hold onto terms in order to aid their ability to discuss differing projects across their studies. It is expected that the children maintain and use their Geography Glossary above all else.
The Geography Glossary can be downloaded separately in PDF form at the base of the CURRICULUM page (CLICK HERE).
Here are examples of the two kinds of vocabulary we have identified. Geography Glossary Vocabulary: Climate, Region, Population Project Vocabulary: Morecambe, Volcano, Ribchester
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Geography Enrichment Opportunity:
The Boot Room as part of our beyond hours offer.
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My latest work as Geography Leader...
I have been working with the senior leaders on our curriculum and ensuring that the Programme of Study fits fully with the National Curriculum expectations and our wider core intent. Like all leaders, there are a number of areas that are occupying my time at the moment.
* Make sure our unique position on the west coast is really coming through from planning into the classroom - it is a prime local resource to explore. Bring the coastline to our children or vice versa!;
* I am in the process of making Learning Journeys as a practical memory aide for the children as they move through their project.
* During my monitoring work, I am focusing carefully upon the prominence of mapwork and the accessibility of these resources within ever developing learning environments.
Our children are also ready to be immersed in the precise terms we use in geography so I have also created a Geography Glossary of key terms to be used progressively through school. (You can find a copy on our CURRICULUM OVERVIEW page.) Let's get the terminology in there from an early stage - be challenging. Increase that vocabulary in tandem with the children's understanding. After all 'dinosaur' could be a complex term but all of our children use it because they understand it!