Geography

Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School – Geography

Subject Statement and interest to

At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School believe children should develop curiosity, a love of learning and interest, to help them explore the world that we live in and its people. This aims to ignite a love of lifelong learning.

Intent

At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School our curriculum will follow the intended aims of:

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework for Understanding the World, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language. Key concepts include:

• Place: Understanding where the live and the characteristics of their local environment
• Space: Exploring natural and built environments, including weather patterns and seasonal changes.
• Interconnections: Recognising how different places and people are connected.

We recognise that Geography plays a vital role in the Early years Foundation Stage by helping children make sense of their physical world and they community. Through geography, children learn about different places, people and environments, which supports their cognitive and social development.

The Primary National Curriculum for Geography

Our curriculum will focus on the four main units of:

• Locational Knowledge – continents, oceans, 4 countries and capital cities of the UK and surrounding seas
• Place Knowledge – local, within the United Kingdom and the other countries
• Human and Physical geography – seasonal and weather patterns, hot and cold places and geographical vocabulary
• Geographical skills and fieldwork – maps, atlases and globes use, compass directions and language, fieldwork and observational skills

Through our teaching, we intend to provoke thought, questioning and enquiry, encouraging children to discover answers through exploration and research to enable them to gain a greater understanding and awareness of the world and their place in it. They will be equipped with geographical skills that will help them learn about a range of human and physical geographical terms. Children will be provided with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Tibshelf, Derbyshire so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes their local area unique and special to them.

Implementation

EYFS

In the EYFS children will explore geography through a mixture of direct teaching opportunities in whole or small groups and high quality planned continuous provision with intended learning opportunities around the classroom. It is taught through the Understanding the World and Personal, Social and Emotional Development areas of learning, with specific links to the Early Learning Goals.

Key Stage 1

As pupils move into Key Stage 1, Geography is taught via the topic based Blocked Curriculum which link learning together as part of other areas of topic linked learning. First hand experiences are used wherever possible, such as the use of maps, atlases, photos, books and the internet to explore the environments they study. Key vocabulary is introduced and, where applicable, revisited as each new topic is investigated. This vocabulary is included in displays, resources and children’s work to ensure sufficient opportunities to revisit and embed this key knowledge.

Through high quality teaching, we develop the following essential characteristics of geographers:

• An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like in their immediate locality, the United Kingdom and the wider world.
• An understanding of the ways in which places can be similar or different.
• An embedded base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• The skills to conduct geographical enquiry, reach plausible conclusions and explain their findings.
• A secure range of observational and fieldwork skills.
• A genuine interest in the subject and a real sense of curiosity about the world and its people.

Assessment

At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School, Reception children will be assessed the Foundation Stage profile, and in Key Stage 1, children will be assessed against the agreed key knowledges statements specific to each block of learning. This key knowledge is retrieved at regular intervals through flashback opportunities as well as being displayed on working walls for the children to access. Children in Early Years will have class floorbooks showcasing the intended learning that has taken place. In Key Stage 1, children have a learning journal. As part of our assessments, our geography subject leader will conduct pupil voice sessions with these learning journals to explore retention of key knowledge.

Impact

We will know our curriculum is successful because children will:

• develop the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it.
• develop their knowledge and skills progressively as they move through the Infant school and prepare them to become competent geographers as they progress into Key Stage 2.

These skills will be able children to be ready for the next stage of their education as they move onto Key Stage 2 at Townend Junior School.