Intent

At Alexander Hosea we aspire for our children to become engaged global citizens. We teach them to use geographical vocabulary, tools, and maps to identify and describe natural and human-created systems or features. We equip them with knowledge about diverse places, people and encourage curiosity to compare similarities and differences. Using fieldwork, they observe, explore, measure and record features in the landscape, and how humans interact with the world around them. They understand that humans are changing their environment and that we can all now act to create a better, more sustainable world.

The key aims for the curriculum are to:

• inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about their local community and the world.
• enable children to develop the skills of interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs.
• help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes its location and can change over time
• provide ‘real life’, sticky knowledge and skills that can be carried with them throughout their lives.

Implementation:

The geography curriculum is mapped across the school from EYFS to Y6. This details knowledge, skills and vocabulary content that children need to acquire term by term. It is carefully crafted to build year-on-year through the school.

Geography is planned as part of a termly project. For example in Y2 children will learn about continents and oceans within their explorers project with the question ‘Where will your exploration take you?’ The project will have several mini-outcomes which are carefully planned so that skills and knowledge are taught first in stand-alone geography lessons, then children apply this to the mini-outcome question. For example in Y4 children have the question ‘Why was the River Nile important?’ They will learn about rivers, the water cycle and settlements in their geography lessons, then be able to present their findings for their outcome which will form part of their Night at the Museum outcome which will have a community audience.

Wherever possible projects will have links with the local community start in EYFS and continue through the school. Examples of visitors include PCSOs, post persons, hedgehog rescue, local engineers. We also have an aspirations week where parents and past pupils are invited to talk about their jobs.

Teachers also take into account local and global issues and where relevant will link to their projects to make learning relevant to the here and now.

The school grounds and wider community are used for regular fieldwork opportunities and resources such as Digimaps for schools, allows us to explore the wider world.

When children revisit concepts within geography, teachers check what has been remembered. They will then teach from starting points and help children to keep up where gaps are identified.

EYFS	ELG - People & Communities
Year 1	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 Terms 5 and 6
Year 2	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 Terms 5 and 6
Year 3	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 with Ancient Greece (2023) Terms 3 and 4 (2024) Terms 5 and 6
Year 4	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 Terms 5 and 6
Year 5	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 Terms 5 and 6
Year 6	Terms 1 and 2 Terms 3 and 4 Terms 5 and 6

Impact

We see children who are motivated to be curious and learn about the world they live in as a result of the carefully planned projects that take into account the knowledge, skills and vocabulary they need to learn but give a context and have a motivating outcome.

Learning Journals and items produced such as posters and leaflets demonstrate the learning sequence and application of knowledge and skills.

Spaced quizzes, ‘Can you still…?’ tasks, feedback four activities are starting to be used to help children to demonstrate that they know and remember more through their journey through the school.

The active eco committee are very passionate about school and global environmental issues and have lots of ideas of ways in which they can improve the school environment and raise awareness of wider environmental issues. The team are contributing to the evidence being collected towards green flag award.

Through inspiring projects, we notice that children across the school have a deep interest in their local community and wider world issues – seeking to make a positive difference as global citizens. For example:

• Y4 learning about the impact of palm oil plantations and writing to prime minister to seek further changes.
• Y6 project around ‘How can we make life fair?’ and raising funds to support people in need in Ethiopia.