Intent

We intend that all Geography lessons at Newlaithes generate a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that we hope will remain with each child for the rest of their lives. We aim to achieve this by ensuring that children are exposed to, and provided with opportunities to explore, investigate and enquire about global issues. Our intent is to inspire children to fulfil their potential and contribute towards a future within their community and the wider world. We provide geographical teaching which prepares young people for the social, economic and environmental surroundings of our modern world. A key element to our teaching is the building of fundamental geographical knowledge and concepts that can be added to and developed each year, increasing memory recall and retrieval skills. This allows our children to advance their rational thinking skills in addition to developing a sense of curiosity and excitement about the planet that we live on.

Children at Newlaithes are constantly exposed and immersed in developing their vocabulary acquisition. This key geographical language increases student’s knowledge and understanding of not only the specific matter they are currently studying, but of the world they live in. Out of classroom learning is essential and many stimulating varied ‘beyond the classroom’ learning experiences take place during the year. We aim to experience Geography first hand by getting outside, visiting various local geographical sites or bringing Geography to the classroom through interactive tools such as Mozaik Education. Fieldwork is a key part of our Geography lessons with fieldwork opportunities taking place in our locality. 

Implementation

Newlaithe’s Geography curriculum is high quality, promotes challenge for all children and is reflective of a broad and balanced curriculum.

All learning will start and end with a quiz to identify pupils’ knowledge and progress. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Learning will be supported through the use of knowledge notes that provide children with scaffolding that supports them to retain new facts and vocabulary in their long term memory.

Revision of key concepts and knowledge are revised regularly through low stake quizzes, so that teachers are able to assess pupils’ understanding.

Impact

Geographical knowledge has been mastered when a child can confidently and securely talk about their Geographical knowledge using the Geographical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the knowledge to new learning in unfamiliar situations.

During pupil interviews, children will talk confidently about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in Geography lessons and be keen to share their learning with others. Children will apply what they have learnt in Geography to their lives today, especially through local Geography studies. Work will show that a range of topics is being covered, cross-curricular links are made where possible, and a wide variety of skills are being taught.

Assessments and monitoring will show standards in Geography will be high and will match standards in other subject areas, in particular English.