QUEEN’S CRESCENT SCHOOL

GEOGRAPHY POLICY STATEMENT

Rationale

The nature of Geography is to investigate people and places and their intra and interdependence. It begins with a child’s immediate locality and expands across a widening range of scales. The object is to develop the child’s knowledge and understanding about people and places through geographical questioning, fieldwork and mapping skills.

Aims and objectives

The teaching of geography at Queen’s Crescent School is based within the framework of the National Curriculum requirements.

Geography teaching offers opportunities to:

  • stimulate children’s interest in their surroundings and in the variety of human and physical conditions on the Earth’s surface
  • foster children’s sense of wonder at the beauty of the world around them;
  • help children to develop an informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat
  • enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and its people.

Eco-Warriors

To progress Queen’s Crescent school’s commitment to making a positive contribution to the environmental conservation, pupils have formed an ‘Eco-Warrior’ club under the supervision of the geography coordinator. The group meets on a regular basis to discuss and plan how the school can sustain an effective Eco school programme.

Projects already introduced have been:

  • ecological classroom activities
  • recycling and waste management
  • bird conservation
  • composting
  • growing organic produce
  • Working towards Eco Schools Awards
  • Carrying out environmental reviews

Foundation Stage

In reception geography is about the world of people and places all around the child. It enhances children’s understanding of the real world and helps them to make sense of natural and built environments. It is included in the ‘knowledge and understanding of the world’’ aspect of Foundation Stage.

Geography in FS2 aims to:

  • use experiences to increase awareness of children’s surroundings through school ‘welly’
  • focus on the rich variety and diversity of human and natural resources
  • introduce moral responsibility
  • help to challenge stereotypes and develop citizenship
  • introduce mapping skills
  • take into consideration the holistic nature of young children’s learning and embed geographical understanding through the children’s play activities.

Key Stage 1

The children will be developing knowledge, skills and understanding of their own environment and the people who live there. Also, they will be beginning to develop an awareness of the wider world.

Geography in KS1 aims to:

  • investigate and learn about the physical and human features of their own environment and appreciate how their locality is similar to and different from other places
  • studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country
  • develop geographical vocabulary e.g. weather patterns, compass directions
  • investigate the affect people have on their environment and develop and increase their sense of moral responsibility
  • focus on geographical questions like: Where/ What is it? What is it like? How did it get like this?
  • develop and use geographical enquiry skills, fieldwork skills, and mapping skills.

The new curriculum ensures that children develop a better locational knowledge e.g. naming and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans

Key Stage 2

The children will be developing knowledge, skills and understanding relating to people, places and environments at varying scales in the United Kingdom and overseas and an appreciation of how places relate to each other and the wider world.

Geography in KS2 aims to:

  • study people and places at different scales form local to national in the United Kingdom and overseas, and investigate how people and places are intra and interdependent
  • study physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
  • study human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
  • investigate the affect people have on their environment and continue to develop their sense of moral responsibility
  • focus on geographical questions like What is it like? How did it get like this? How and why is it changing?
  • continue to develop and use geographical enquiry skills, fieldwork skills, and mapping skills. Use the eight points of a compass and begin to use four-figure grid references (up to 6 by UKS2)
  • LKS2 to locate the world’s countries, with a focus on Europe, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
  • UKS2 to develop a much broader place knowledge with a focus on North or South America

Approaches to Teaching

Geography will be taught in a variety of ways at Queen’s Crescent. Where possible the geography themes will be taught through the school’s thematic approach. This will result in geography being linked to and taught through various other subject areas, such as English, ICT, and Maths. Geography will be taught following a rolling programme so the children will not repeat a theme. The themes will have either a local, global, or environmental focus and will develop one or more of the children’s enquiry, fieldwork or mapping skills.

The geography themes are set out in the rolling programme, which is attached.

Resources

Resources are organised to support the themes (several of which are ICT based) and money is available to purchase others. Atlases and maps are an on-going priority for updating.

Assessment

The school’s assessment policy gives a detailed account of how assessment is carried out in the school. Assessments are carried out through teacher set tasks, focused observations, questioning of the children, review of the children’s work – those children who over or under achieve are annotated on staff’s planning. Evidence trails are gathered by the Geography Coordinator through interviewing children and collecting work. Staff will inform parents at parents’ evenings and through the annual reports.

Curriculum Links

This policy is supported by a range of whole school policies on, for example, learning, assessment and special needs that will guide and support the work described in this policy.

Equal Opportunities

All children will have an equal opportunity to work within this policy area. Account will be taken of their needs and where appropriate support for them will be accessed through the special needs policy.

Roles and Responsibilities

This policy has been developed through consultation between staff and between the subject leader, head teacher and governing body. The head teacher, deputy and subject leader monitor and evaluate the work achieved by the children in this area. The leader identifies areas for development, resource needs and helps in the moderation of standards across the school. The leader works with the linked subject governor so that they are aware of such issues. The linked governor will also keep the governing body informed about developments in this area.  

Monitoring and Evaluation

The monitoring and evaluation of the achievements made in this area of the curriculum is carried out through the guidelines on monitoring and evaluation. These set out how the head teacher, deputy head and subject leader use a range of strategies to assess the quality of achievements. The class teachers however, have a key role in monitoring and evaluation of their work and that of the children in their class. The Head teacher works with the governing body to inform them about the work carried out within the school. The periodic reports either through the Wiltshire School Improvement programme’ or OFSTED inspections give independent and outside views on the standards achieved within the subject area.