Respect – Resilience – Read – Retain
Respect – we aim to develop a sense of respect for themselves, peers, adults, other faiths and cultures, the environment and the wider world
Resilience – we aim to develop a ‘give it a go’ and ‘its ok to make mistakes’ attitude within our children to prepare them for life beyond school
Read – we believe that reading is the doorway to all learning, we will prioritise the teaching of reading in school
Retain – we aim for our children to know more and remember more, our curriculum design will reinforce and revisit skills and knowledge
Subject Leader - Mrs Vizzard/Mrs Swinbourne
Intent
We aim to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We want children to enjoy learning about geography and develop their interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources, and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Our Geography curriculum builds on children’s prior learning and develops their knowledge of the world around them so that they know more, remember more, and understand more.
Learning about Geography enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development.
Implementation
As a school within Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, we teach a scheme of work designed by a transition team of our primary school staff working with subject specialists from our secondary schools. This means our curriculum has been designed to ensure clear progression, in the acquisition of knowledge and for key skills, building on pupil’s prior learning. This begins in Early Years where learning opportunities are provided through carefully planned play and teacher led activities. Children explore and observe the world around them, listen to stories and non- fiction texts and study simple maps. They think about the similarities and differences between their world and a contrasting environment and understand important processes and changes in the natural world.
We teach termly, discreet topics for all pupils from Year 1 to Year 6.
The curriculum units of work have clearly identified minimum knowledge ‘end points,’ and have been sequenced to ensure that pupils know more and remember more as they move through primary school and transfer into KS3.
Our curriculum covers the National Curriculum and is underpinned by the building blocks of Geography (Threshold Concepts) which are emphasised and reinforced in the geography curriculum across our Trust schools from KS1 to KS5.
- Location and Place Knowledge
- Geographical techniques and terms.
- Physical features and processes.
- Human interaction with the environment.
Each unit of work has a clear rationale, key topic vocabulary, builds on pupil’s prior learning and defines the minimum knowledge and skills (end points) that pupils will learn. Assessment strands in topics give pupils the opportunity to demonstrate their learning and the knowledge companions that we call ‘Learn it! Link It! help pupils to remember the key elements of the topic. This helps pupil organise their learning into relevant areas and make links to other areas and subjects. Conceptual (Golden) threads of Geography such as cause, effect response and the ‘Geotrio’ of social, economic, and environmental factors, are woven through our curriculum to ensure consistency, add focus and promote purposeful learning.
Topics and units lay out sequential components of learning which equates to 8-10 hours of teaching.
Key Stage 1
Topics include:
- The local area: where I live.
- Weather patterns
- A contrasting locality: Antarctica
- A contrasting locality: Brazil
Key Stage 2
Topics include:
- Angry Earth: Volcanoes
- Angry Earth: Earthquakes
- Biomes: Tropical Rainforest
- Biomes: Deserts
- Swimming in Plastic
- Seaside Rocks/Coastal Erosion
- Journey of the River Tees
- Angry Earth: Japanese Tsunami of 2011
- Climate Change is Real
- Migration
- Country study: North America
- Natural Resources/European comparison
- Settlements
Local Context of School
St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Hartlepool
Town in the North-East of England.
Part of County Durham. Borders Stockton on Tees and Redcar and Cleveland along the line of the River Tees.
Train station with links to Edinburgh to London, Railway heritage. Close to A19 motorway.
One river: River Tees. Teesmouth (Nature Reserve) where the River Tees joins into North Sea.
Coastal Town: Seaton Carew, Hartlepool Headland, Marina.
Curriculum Sequence
We have chosen to sequence the curriculum over a two-year rolling cycle,
| Year A | Year B | |||||
| Autumn | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Spring | Summer | |
| Key Stage 1
Year 1 and 2 |
Planet Earth | Antarctica | Handa's Surprise | Where I live | The Weather | Brazil |
| Lower KS2
Year 3 and 4
|
Where on Earth – UK and Europe | Angry Earth – Earthquakes & Volcanoes | Swimming in plastic | UK my place in world | Seaside Rocks | Journey of the River Tees |
| Upper KS 2
Year 5 and 6
|
Rainforest
Biomes |
North America | Climate Change is Real | Angry Earth Japanese Tsunami | Biomes Deserts | Sustainability Stretch - Hartlepool |
Each topic includes a knowledge retention/recap element so that we build on prior learning. Pupils take an assessed task in each unit which draws on their learning and vocabulary.
Impact
When pupils leave our school, pupil will know more, remember more, and understand more about Geography. They will have developed the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate, and understand the world around them and their place in it.
The majority of pupil will achieve age related expectations in Geography and clear progress will be evident in their topic work and in topic assessed tasks. Outcomes in Geography books will demonstrate the pupil’s acquisition of key knowledge and topic, ‘end points’.
They will have the firm foundations in Geography and are well placed to make good progress at Key Stage 3.
Curriculum Documents