At NPS our pupils understand the core skills needed to work as a Geographer with the use of the school curriculum character – Geoff the Geographer.  This character is regularly used to encourage pupils to reflect on the key skills needed when working within the Geography curriculum.

We are in school to Acquire the knowledge and skills that will allow us to Achieve our aims and go on to what we Aspire to do.

Our aspiration for every learner (intent):

At Nanaksar Primary School, we recognise the essential need of delivering a strong Geography curriculum in order to build upon our pupils’ experiences of the natural and physical world around them. We believe in providing our young learners with the vocabulary, knowledge, skills and understanding through real life experiences to become confident Geographers. Geography has never been more important or relevant than in our current society and we have developed a progressive, enquiry-based curriculum to reflect this.

We believe it is vital to personalise the Geography curriculum and cater for our pupils learning based on their personal experiences and knowledge of the diverse localities, countries, lifestyles and cultures they have come from. 

We believe that it is our role as educators to provide our pupils with a broad range of opportunities to investigate the local and global world through memorable experiences both inside and outside the classroom. Through such exploration, enquiry and discovery, our pupils will gain a greater geographical awareness of how the world works, an appreciation of different lifestyles, as well as a healthy curiosity and understanding about life beyond what they see. Our aim is for our pupils to develop a strong passion and enthusiasm to play an active role in understanding the world we live in and play an essential role in making a positive difference to this constantly changing world.

How we support pupils to acquire this learning (implementation):

The Geography curriculum is creatively sequenced, planned and delivered based on an open ended enquiry question which forms the foundation of the learning for each unit. Each lesson is planned with progression equipping pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to enable them to answer the enquiry question by the end of the unit of study.

Pupils’ begin exploring geographical concepts in the EYFS through planned learning experiences mostly based on an integrated thematic approach. Emphasis is on learning through play experiences in which pupils have the opportunity to discover, explore, show curiosity and challenge themselves. Pupils thrive in a language rich environment through the use of songs and stories to support the foundations of geographical  language acquisition with which they can develop their understanding of geographical concepts through topics that directly relate to them.

Teaching and learning in Key Stage 1 and 2 consists of a tailored curriculum based on the pupils prior knowledge, greatly focusing on the acquisition and application of key subject knowledge, concepts and vocabulary. Lessons are introduced with the opportunity for pupils to share and record what they already know. This is used as a starting point to build pupils’ knowledge and plan for any preconceived misconceptions. Lessons are planned with an opportunity to recap prior learning and introduces new vocabulary, which is also shared with parents and pupils in the half termly Topic Webs.

The enquiry structure of the lessons adds an element of mystery and purpose, providing pupils with a context for their learning. Pupils’ are given the opportunity to use real and virtual maps, globes, atlases and compasses to learn mapwork skills. Fieldwork opportunities are planned for allowing pupils to ask questions and answer open ended questions about observations they have made. Pupils are taught to research places using books and chromebooks and make effective use of online programmes such as Google Earth to explore the world from the classroom. 

How we measure achievements (impact):

Pupil’s achievements are measured through formative assessments in which their learning is observed through teacher judgement and the assessment of a range of work produced and the understanding demonstrated. Pupils confidently make connections to prior learning and make links between curriculum subjects giving them a deeper understanding of Geography and the world around them. Effective marking and feedback with next steps and open ended challenge questions enable teachers to stretch the most able learners and provide opportunities to challenge their thinking.

At the end of the unit, pupils have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the taught concepts through a final outcome task which answers the enquiry questions. These outcome activities include; posters, presentations, reports, drawings, mind maps and role play. Pupils are expected to apply the vocabulary learnt in context and showcase their learning within these final tasks. They independently record their learning and demonstrate the progress made by adding to their knowledge harvest maps created at the start of the topics.

We aspire to develop a culture of pupils who share their excitement and enthusiasm of Geography creating a love for the subject and the ambition to influence the present and future world. Pupils’ leave Key Stage 2 as keen and confident learners who are able to use their learning of human and physical geography to understand the world around them through the lens of a skilled Geographer.