Geography
Our aims for geography at St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School:
- To reflect St Gabriel’s Mission Statement
- To plan inspiring lessons which develop children’s geographical knowledge and understanding.
- To develop children’s knowledge and understanding for physical and human process.
- To help children to make sense of their own surroundings through learning about their local area and the interaction between people and the environment.
- To inspire children with a knowledge of other cultures and promote respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural country.
- To provide learning opportunities that excite and motivate children to develop a sense of wonder at the beauty of the world around them.
- To stimulate children’s inquisitive minds to undertake investigation, problem solving and decision making.
Intent
At St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School, through our Geography curriculum, we aim to expand geographical vocabulary, increase our children’s knowledge and curiosity of the wider world and promote high aspirations. We seek to create a life-long love of the subject, through teaching our children about diverse places, people, and resources. Through the study of natural and human environments, as well as physical and human processes, our desire is to provide our children with a sense of awe and wonder about the world they live in. As they continue on their journey of Geography, we aim to foster a deep understanding of the subject that develops alongside their geographical skills. Our aim is that our children go on to apply these skills across all subjects, as well as in their futures beyond St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School. Our curriculum is designed to provide our children with the subject specific language they need to describe, question, and discuss the world, as well as their place in it. We aim to produce well- rounded individuals by providing our children with opportunities to expand their cultural capital and experiences of the world.
Implementation
Teachers are encouraged to start lessons by revisiting prior knowledge as often as possible. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Staff will model the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge, and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. We support learning with trips to inspire our children and widen their cultural experiences. Teachers are also encouraged to use a range of resources such as videos, photographs and newspaper articles during lessons to help create immersive learning experiences.
Impact
Our geography curriculum is taught to a high quality, showing clear progression and provides additional opportunities for building the children’s cultural capital. At St Gabriel’s we provide a fun, engaging, high quality geography education, that provides children with good knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Throughout teaching, teachers are able to assess pupil outcomes and development of key knowledge and skills against the objectives. These outcomes are monitored and tracked, with planning and learning evaluated and adapted. A cycle of monitoring takes place by the subject leader and senior leaders. This includes book scrutinies, learning walks and pupil consultations.
Children at St Gabriel’s enjoy geography and this results in motivated learners with a good geographical understanding.
Catholic Social Teaching through Geography
Our teaching of Geography is deeply rooted in Catholic Social Teaching.
- Promoting peace- the teaching of geography provides many opportunities to teach children about the importance of peace by nurturing an understanding of how spatial processes and relationships shape conflict and cooperation. By examining real-world examples and analysing the impacts of various interventions, the children develop an understanding of peacebuilding and reconciliation. For example, in the Year 6 unit ‘Extreme Earth’.
- Human dignity- we teach the importance of social justice, community well-being, and stewardship of the Earth. Through geography, we explore issues such as poverty, and environmental deprivation through the lens of human dignity, encouraging children to consider actions that can promote a fairer world. For example, in the Year 4 unit ‘Earning a Living’.
- Stewardship- we teach that God has entrusted us with the responsibility to look after the Earth that He created and every living thing on it. For example, in the Year 1 unit ‘Around the World’.
- Option for the Poor- We aimto teach children about the lives of those living in less developed countries so that they might deepen their understanding of the hardships faced by others both in the UK and abroad and so grow in compassion for those in need. For example, in the Year 6 unit ‘Exploring Africa’.
- Common Good- we educate about the dangers of pollution, the use of fossil fuels and deforestation. For example, in the Year 6 unit ‘Natural Resources’.
- Solidarity- this is built through Geography by learning about the lives and experiences of peoples living in different regions around the globe. For example, in the Year 3 unit ‘Our European Neighbours’.
- Creation and environment- In Geography, the children learn about the physical world of God's creation and how to look after it. We also communicate awe and wonder at God's creation when we study the physical world, climates and natural disasters. For example, in the Year 3 unit ‘The Rainforest’
Subject Leader- Mrs Maguire
