Look at the amazing things going on in Geography at St Paulinus

Curriculum Intent:

How do we intend to achieve our curriculum vision in Geography lessons?

At St Paulinus we offer children a high-quality geography curriculum, giving them a sense of place – both where they live and in the wider world. In our diverse society, it is important that children understand other people and cultures. We meet this need by inspiring curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Wherever possible, our geography curriculum is enhanced through visitors and outdoor learning as they bring the learning to life and create memorable experiences. Geography is a challenging, motivating and fascinating subject – we aim to immerse children in their knowledge of countries, geographical processes, environmental issues and geographical skills.

At St Paulinus we follow the National Curriculum, which enhances the children’s knowledge and understanding through different strands of Geography. This includes:

At St Paulinus Academy, Geography and History are taught alternately each half term. Children across the school will have weekly Geography lessons in Autumn 1B, Spring 2B and Summer 3B. Geography is constantly revisited and revised throughout each term in every classroom with a display visible all year. The programme of study for each year group builds upon previous knowledge year on year from nursery and reception through to year 6. Throughout the years children can revise key language and skills, which ultimately allows them to gain confidence, progress and succeed in Geography #BeAGeographer.

Our whole-school curriculum is focused on 5 long term and addresses pupils' academic, personal and social development. The 5 individual elements of learning provide a different aspect to the education for every pupil. Through the Geography curriculum, we aim to address these as follows:

• Provide high quality education: School aims to ensure that its teachers are well trained and fully up to date in their knowledge. The curriculum is reviewed regularly.  This is to ensure the curriculum is fit for purpose and meets the needs of our children in this modern world.  Geographical expertise is built on substantive geographical knowledge identified in the national Curriculum.
• Love of learning: The geography curriculum intends to make real and relevant links to the children and their lives for instance in KS1 the children will study the local area and in Year 6 the children study a special unit about looking after our planet. Wherever possible links are made to practical activities where children can get out an experience Geography in action – for instance when taking part in field work. Within each Geography topic, we strive to include a 3 generational moment which fully immerses the children in their learning and creates a lesson that children will remember. It is intended that when children leave St Paulinus Primary School, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore other countries, cultures and environmental issues.  We hope that they will be engaged in Geography and prepared to continue their learning journey at secondary school.
• Progress and Achievement: The Curriculum is suitably planned to support all children, no matter their starting point to succeed their goals. Our focus on supporting all learners to know more, remember more and do more #BeAGeographer is at the heart of the intent.  SEND needs are considered as are challenges for those children with a keen interest and ability in Geography. It is important that every child has that feeling of achieving success.
• Positive mental health and confident, independent learners: The Geography curriculum builds upon prior knowledge over time – we aim to teach and secure bite size chunks of knowledge that children can recall and build upon as they progress through the key stages. Through this method we hope to give children the skills and knowledge they need to be confident and independent learners.  It is important to us that our children achieve success and grow in confidence over their time at St Paulinus.
• Responsible citizens who can flourish in society: The curriculum intends to equip children with a strong knowledge of the world which they can use positive to work for the community and not against it – this is especially evident when we talk to pupils about the impacts of human interactions on the world.  Teachers provide enrichment opportunities both inside and outside of school, ensuring outdoor learning helps to put theory into practice and to foster a love of geography. They help children to build their own identity and develop their sense of place.
  
  
  

Curriculum Implementation:

What does Geography teaching look like?

• Geography allows the children to broaden their knowledge of the world in a fun and creative way. We aim to expand the children’s oracy and vocabulary within geography and enhance geographical skills and fieldwork. Geography is an active subject using lots of group work, outdoor learning and real life scenarios to bring geography to life in the classroom. Visual elements enhance lessons with our tailored use of interactive websites, video clips, a variety of maps and globes.
  
  The structure of Geography lessons follows the following pattern:
• Revisit/ revise(to practise or apply already acquired knowledge)
• Introduce new learning or consolidate past learning if needed(modelled learning by the teacher, new vocabulary or skills, could include a video etc)
• Talk tasks– developing oracy through our ‘Talk a lot’ school ethos (this could be paired, group or whole class activities or games)
• Develop learning –gaining a greater understanding of our learning objective by applying oracy skills to written work or reading as appropriate. For example, furthering our geographical skills e.g. map skills, knowledge about a part of the world etc.
• Independent task– children apply their learning to an activity (this can be recorded in many ways e.g. written, photos, matching activity, group activity)
• Plenary– review of what we have learnt today.

Teaching focuses on key elements from our Geography curriculum to support children in their progress. Effective questioning, oral and written methods, repetition in single lesson and across lessons allows all children to progress and achieve. Geography is inclusive for all children to travel the same learning journey, regardless of their ability to access the core lessons. Adaptive teaching, sensory support, visual aids and additional scaffolds are used to remove barriers to learning.

Geography teaching develops a range of investigation and problem-solving skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas especially History, Science, English and RE.

Our children enjoy lessons and we believe this early love of learning stimulates children to become life-long learners and have an awareness of the World around them.

Throughout the year, the children at St Paulinus have opportunities to learn through hands on experience, to deepen their understanding of the world around them. This includes:

Earth Day
Earth day is renowned for being the world’s largest environmental movement and in April 2024 St Paulinus took part in the ‘Planet Vs Plastics’ topic to learn more about the environment, the impact humans can have on the planet and what we can do to save it.

Yorkshire Water Visit 2024

During our year 5 ‘Rivers and Water’ topic, the children had the opportunity to be involved in a Yorkshire water workshop to learn more about the water cycle and how our local water company filter the water so that it is clean enough for us to drink. The whole school then took part in a water safety assembly to bring awareness to rivers, reservoirs and beaches going into the summer season.

Curriculum impact:

What do our outcomes in Geography look like? How successful is our Geography teaching?