Abbotswood Primary School
Together We Aim High, Believe and Achieve
Geography
Being a Geographer at Abbotswood
Being a Geographer at Abbotswood primary School
At Abbotswood, we aspire for all children to love Geography: to be enthused and knowledgeable about the awesome variety of physical and human features of our planet, which in turn inspires a lifelong interest in this subject.
Children first need to understand their place in this world and this starts with being able to explore and investigate their own locality and environment before progressing to consider uniquely diverse and global phenomena.
Through providing a wealth of opportunities to provoke and provide answers to questions we aspire to encourage and motivate children to understand how they can be responsible citizens and recognise their responsibility to protect the planet for future d=generations through sustainable development.
How geography is taught at Abbotswood?
At Abbotswood Primary School we are Geographers! We strive to develop and create a high-quality geography education which will inspire children's curiosity and fascination of the world and the people that live in their world. We want our children to love geography. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be surveyors, town planners, conservationists or weather forecasters. We want our children to remember their geography lessons and experiences in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with!
At Abbotswood, Geography is a time for children to learn about a range of different places and their localities. We ensure that children explore the world around them with the help of artefacts, maps and images. Children are encouraged to question their understanding allowing them to enjoy all that Geography has to offer. We want to equip pupils with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the Geography National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
Planning and Teaching
Each term, each year group will have a central topic which looks at a key aspect of History or Geography. Geography topics lend themselves to a broad and balanced cross-curricular learning experience.
Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year.
Our short-term plans are produced on a termly basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources that will be used to achieve them. Each term, every year group will have a key question or idea which aims inspire and enthuse the children about the area which they will be learning about that term. The children, along with their teacher, will inquire, investigate and create to deepen prior knowledge and develop new learning.
During a Geography topic, children experience an explicit weekly Geography lesson. We also make cross curricular links at Abbotswood, where appropriate, as we believe that this will highlight the importance and relevance of these skills to both learning in school and to the wider world.
Staff at Abbotswood use the National Curriculum to ensure pupils develop a coherent knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Geography. We support this teaching through skills ladders that have been carefully mapped out and broken down for each year group This means that skills in Geography are progressive and build year on year.
As subject leaders, we ensure that both knowledge and skills are taught simultaneously through monitoring of topic plans, lesson observation and book scrutiny. All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.
Curriculum and Skills Ladders
Being a Geographer in Reception
Being a Geographer learning in KS1
Being a Geographer in Lower KS2 - Year 3 and 4
Being a Geographer learning in Upper KS2 - Year 5 and 6!
Geography Skills Ladders
Geography Learning at Abbotswood.
Please take a look at our photos gallery to see our children being Geographers and demonstrating learning across the year groups at Abbotswood.
If you have any questions regarding Geography Abbotswood or would like to share some ideas that would support our teaching and provision of these subjects, please contact Mrs. Smith who is the subject leader.