How We Teach Geography

Intent:

At our primary school in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, the geography curriculum seeks to nurture a deep fascination with the diversity of people, places, cultures, and environments globally. Aligned with the quality statements in the Ofsted Subject Inspection Handbook for Geography (2023), our curriculum is ambitious, coherently planned, and sequenced to ensure progression in both geographical knowledge and skills.

The curriculum aims to:

• Spark curiosity about the world through interactive lessons and local fieldwork that connects to pupils’ lived experiences.
• Develop spatial thinking, mapwork skills, and geographical vocabulary in line with the latest Ofsted focus on disciplinary literacy.
• Enable pupils to investigate places, patterns, and physical/human processes using geographical enquiry, fostering critical thinking.
• Equip pupils to analyse issues from multiple perspectives, appreciating cultural and environmental diversity.
• Foster a passion for places and environments, inspiring future studies and careers in geography and related fields.
• Build cultural capital so that pupils develop detailed locational knowledge and strong spatial awareness.

By achieving these aims, pupils will demonstrate key aspects of high-quality geography education as highlighted by Ofsted: contextual and locational knowledge, fieldwork proficiency, and geographical thinking. They will also see the relevance of geography to their lives, backgrounds, and future opportunities. The “golden thread” concepts running through the curriculum include place, environment, space, scale, diversity, change, interconnection, and sustainability.

Implementation:

Our geography curriculum will be implemented through:

• A coherently planned and progressively sequenced scheme of work built around enquiry questions and recurring “golden thread” concepts: place, environment, space, scale, diversity, change, interconnection, and sustainability.
• Interactive lessons employing a range of diverse, high-quality resources to explore key geographical concepts.
• Regular fieldwork opportunities that deepen understanding of core concepts within local and wider contexts.
• Cross-curricular links to reinforce conceptual understanding across subjects such as history, science, and literacy, promoting a holistic approach to learning.
• Continuous, low-stakes quizzes and formative assessments to check pupils’ understanding, ensuring that they build on prior knowledge and retain learning over time through long-term retrieval practices.
• Collaborative planning and CPD sessions, focusing on embedding and revisiting recurring geographical concepts across all key stages.
• Home learning activities designed to consolidate and extend pupils’ conceptual understanding in different contexts, promoting metacognitive reflection.
• A spiral curriculum model that progressively adds layers of complexity to key concepts over time, ensuring a deep, enduring understanding.

Our approach begins with strong conceptual foundations in KS1, which are revisited, reinforced, and extended as pupils progress through KS2.

Each phase has long-term plans tailored to year groups:

• EYFS follows the Early Years Framework, focusing on exploration and understanding of the world around them.
• In KS1, pupils engage in three geography enquiries per year, designed to build fundamental geographical knowledge and enquiry skills.
• KS2 classes undertake two geography enquiries per year, with Upper KS2 (Y5/6) following a two-year teaching cycle to ensure coverage of the full curriculum in mixed-year classes.

This flexible implementation will adapt to pupils’ needs while maintaining a focus on progressively developing their conceptual understanding of geography’s “golden threads.”

Impact:

A successful geography curriculum will equip pupils with both substantive and disciplinary knowledge, enabling them to understand the world and their place within it. When implemented effectively, the curriculum will:

• Inspire a sense of wonder about places, people, and environments, evidenced through pupil voice, surveys, and classroom observations.
• Enable pupils to think geographically, applying key concepts, skills, and vocabulary in lessons, as demonstrated in assessments and work scrutiny.
• Empower pupils to investigate issues critically, analyse patterns, and propose solutions, as reflected in topic assessments and project work.
• Prepare pupils to actively engage as global citizens, with participation and learner attributes tracked through pupil voice and classroom engagement.
• Foster a sustained interest in geography, leading to further study, as indicated by uptake at GCSE and beyond.
• Develop confident, resilient learners equipped with the knowledge, skills, and cultural capital needed for future success, monitored through well-being surveys, observations, and academic outcomes.

The impact of the curriculum will be measured through:

• Regular low-stakes quizzes, formative assessments, and long-term retrieval activities to ensure pupils remember and build upon previous enquiries.
• Moderation and scrutiny of pupils’ geography work to ensure high standards.
• Lesson observations and pupil voice activities to gauge engagement and curiosity.
• Tracking of pupil participation, engagement, and well-being across geography lessons.
• Analysis of geography uptake at KS4, alongside the development of aspirational outcomes for pupils.

Ultimately, the curriculum will lead pupils to value geographical learning, apply it meaningfully in their daily lives, and approach the subject with curiosity, ambition, and critical thinking. High-quality geography education will help prepare our pupils to play active, informed, and ethical roles in society.