Thornham St James C.E. Primary School
At Thornham St James, we are all geographers! We want our pupils to appreciate geography and the world. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be cartographers, town planners, conservationists or weather forecasters! The Geography curriculum has been carefully designed so that our pupils develop their Geography knowledge and capital. We want all our pupils to remember their Geography learning in our school, to cherish these experiences and embrace the opportunities they are presented with.
Intent
Our geography curriculum is driven by the whole-school vision to give students the skills, attributes and academic qualifications to go on to shine, living lives of choice and opportunity. In selecting and sequencing knowledge for our curriculum, we are guided by the national curriculum and led by our whole-school curriculum design principles.
As Geographers, we aim to develop children’s subject skills and understanding by inspiring and igniting their curiosity about the wider world. Through our curriculum we intent to create children that are aware not only of themselves and their community, but are aware of where they stand in relation to this wider world. It is our intent that when children leave Thornham St James we expect them to have a sound knowledge of a range of different countries, to have considered key concepts such as immigration and trade, and well-developed geographical mapping skills. They should be able to locate key world countries and features and use a map efficiently including using 6-figure grid references. They should be competent geographers who are well-equipped to take part in the next stage of their education.
When children leave Thornham St James, we expect them to have a sound knowledge of a range of different countries, to have considered key concepts such as immigration and trade, and well-developed geographical mapping skills. They should be able to locate key world countries and features and use a map efficiently including using 6-figure grid references. They should be competent geographers who are well-equipped to take part in the next stage of their education.
Implementation
At Thornham St James, we want to equip pupils with ambition beyond the minimum statutory requirements of the Geography National Curriculum and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
We have designed the curriculum as a school and therefore the curriculum is unique to our school and meets the needs of our pupils and our context. This is done through a carefully planned curriculum, which helps children to understand their locality in relation to the UK, in relation to Europe and in relation to the rest of the world.
We teach in subject blocks in order to preserve the integrity of subject specific skills and knowledge. Knowledge in each unit is carefully planned and sequenced. Each lesson within a unit of work is carefully crafted and builds upon what has been previously taught from one year to the next. Each unit includes a work booklet. This helps structure every lesson through a rich, challenging, but age-appropriate text. Key graphics, images and diagrams are all included alongside the text. In line with Rosenshine’s (2012) principles of effective instruction, questions and tasks break up the lesson into small manageable chunks while also ensuring that pupils get regular opportunities to practice new learning. The work booklet clearly sets out the understanding that teachers will develop in class, ensuring high academic expectations of all pupils (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 2008). Increasing the subject knowledge of teachers, especially non-specialists such as primary school teachers, is paramount as ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ has been identified as the most important controllable factor associated with student outcomes (Coe et al, 2014).
Across the school, children focus on 4 key areas of geography: location knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, and map skills and fieldwork as set out in the National Curriculum. This supports children to make connections and links across the topics covered. In addition, we have devised a set of progressive end points for reach unit that ensure the A precise tiered approach to vocabulary enables children to build their fluency to accurately describe geographical concepts.
The Geography curriculum incorporates fundamental geographical knowledge and skills, allowing pupils to build on a firm foundation in future years. An introduction to settlements, tectonic processes and hydrological and climatic processes introduce Year 3 pupils to concepts, vocabulary and knowledge that is capitalised on in subsequent years, laying important foundations of much of their future geographical learning.
When pupils study Migration in Year 4, they will utilise their knowledge of settlement types in order to deepen their understanding of migration patterns. This knowledge and understanding support their comprehension of why communities develop around areas of rich natural resources, and how slums develop. The Natural Resources unit then feeds into the Year 5 unit on Energy and Sustainability, by supporting pupils’ understanding of where energy comes from and how greater sustainability can be achieved.
The Year 6 units on Population and Globalisation draw on themes that have been explored throughout KS2, so pupils are really able to approach these complex topics with a great depth and breadth of knowledge. The Rivers unit in Year 4 follows on from the Water, Weather and Climate unit and pupils then continue to build on this knowledge of physical processes through the Biomes unit. The Local Fieldwork unit is in Year 6, so that pupils are exposed to geographical research in KS2. This is a crucial part of a child’s geographical education and we have intentionally incorporated this unit at the end of KS2 to capitalise on their greater maturity and geographical knowledge
Our geography curriculum seeks to give pupils a solid knowledge of our world and its human and physical features. Pupils will have excellent locational knowledge and will use a variety of maps to locate different places. Pupils will be able to identify and describe a location’s human and physical features. Furthermore, they will be able to explain similarities and differences between places. As they progress through the school, they will also learn how to conduct fieldwork in order to answer enquiry questions.
The curriculum has been developed to be broad and balanced so that the children are exposed to experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. We do this by using primary sources such as field trips that are closely linked to the topic and secondary sources such as; maps (digital and physical), atlases, globes, photographs and books to develop their understanding of the wider world.
Impact
Whilst delivering the curriculum, teachers are constantly checking to ensure that pupils are learning the necessary knowledge and identifying and addressing misunderstandings. Assessment is used as a tool to support pupil learning. The benefit of retrieval practice is one of the strongest findings in cognitive psychology (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Storm, Bjork & Storm, 2010). Low-stakes quizzes are efficient, effective and motivating for pupils, while also providing teachers with information about what pupils have misunderstood or are struggling to remember. Each lesson begins with a flashback quiz, but we also use a range of retrieval strategies beyond the lesson to ensure content is retained in the long-term memory through spaced learning. To ensure coverage of prior learning, teachers follow a retrieval plan so that all topics are revisited over time.
At Thornham St. James, we are committed to ensuring that our curriculum effectively embeds learning in pupils’ long-term memory while also promoting excellence in outcomes. To assess the impact of our curriculum, we employ a comprehensive approach that utilises four key tools:
- Classroom Check-ins: These evaluations focus on subject knowledge, clarity of explanations, high expectations, opportunities for learning, pupil responses, participation, and teacher-student relationships. This allows us to assess how well pupils are engaging with the content and applying their knowledge.
- Pupil Book Looks and Pupil Voice : These studies involve dialogues with pupils and reviewing their workbooks to evaluate curriculum structures, teaching methods, participation, and responses. This dialogic model helps us gauge whether pupils are knowing more, remembering more, and able to do more as a result of their learning experiences.
- Professional Growth Models: We prioritise continuous improvement in staff subject knowledge and evidence-informed teaching practices, including retrieval practice, spaced learning, interleaving, and explicit instruction techniques. This ensures that all teachers are equipped to support pupil learning effectively.
- Assessment and Achievement: We articulate learning outcomes through tasks and tests, evaluating both understanding and areas for improvement. This information informs our next steps, guiding us in adjusting teaching to meet the needs of all pupils.
In conducting these evaluations, we ask critical questions such as:
- How well do pupils remember the content that they have been taught?
- Do books and pupil discussions demonstrate progress and attainment?
- Can pupils apply their learning in more sophisticated contexts, showing that knowledge has ‘travelled’ with them?
Ultimately, at Thornham St James we want children to know more, remember more and understand more.
