Rothley Church of England Academy

Rothley Church Of England Academy

Geography

"The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it." — Psalm 24:1

 Intent

 “Geography is the study of where places are found, what they are like and the relationship between people and their environments.” (CUSP)

At Rothley Primary school, we want our young people to be curious, interested, and able to understand the world around them. They will have excellent knowledge of where places are, both locally and globally. Our children will be able to identify similarities and differences within human and physical geography and a strong understanding of the impacts that human activities have on the world and its resources.

Using the CUSP curriculum, our lessons are specially designed to draw upon prior learning, use substantive and disciplinary knowledge. This means pupils make conscious connections and think hard about the topics they are studying to become ‘more expert’. The children develop their understanding of key concepts in geography through the following areas;

●     Substantive concepts:

●     Locational knowledge - where a place is actually found

●     Place knowledge - what a place looks like (physical/human and cultural experiences of a place)

●     Human geography - interactions between people, places and the environment, including the built environment, migration and the effects on the landscape/environment

●     Physical geography - the natural shaping of the surface of the earth and the processes that have shaped and evolved it, whilst predicting what could happen in the future.

●     Geographical skills and fieldwork - using maps, GIS, data collection to connect knowledge to places.

●     Disciplinary knowledge:

●     Place and space - what a place means to people and how it is influenced by ideas, emotions and beliefs. Understanding how to use space (latitude and longitude) to locate a place.

●     Scale and connection - understanding locality compared to globality - region, county, country, global position and recognising the way people use places.

●     Environment and sustainability - drawing on the physical and human geography (how did a place get like that?), the choices we make and the impact on the environment, including development, pollution, deforestation, etc.

●     Culture and diversity (uniqueness) - how a place is shaped by human ideas, culture and beliefs. Understanding the difference between places from a human perspective such as, race, ethnicity, culture, belief, employment, wealth and connection and how there is reginal inequalities

Key stage narrative

KEY STAGE 1 

 In Key Stage 1 the children develop a sense of place, scale and an understanding of human and physical geographical features. Map skills and fieldwork are essential to support children in developing an understanding of how to explain and describe a place, the people who live there, its space and scale. Children study the 7 continents and 5 oceans of the world and extend their knowledge and study the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom, along with the oceans and seas that surround the UK. Throughout Key stage 1, the children enhance their locational knowledge by studying and identifying human and physical features of places and study contrasting locations throughout the world. The location of these areas in the world offers culturally diverse and contrasting places. For example, children will study the human and physical features of a non-European location in Africa, such as Nairobi and a study of an indigenous tribe in the rainforests of Brazil and Venezuela. These studies offer rich opportunities to know, compare and contrast different cultures in two continents. Children can develop their fieldwork and map skills through a study of the local area, using cardinal points of a compass. Maps are introduced through familiar stories to communicate what the place and space is like, and children use retrieval skills and apply knowledge about human and physical features in their local context. OS maps are introduced to children in Key Stage 1 using Digimap for Schools.

 LOWER KEY STAGE 2

 Throughout Key stage 2, fieldwork and map skills are revisited with the introduction of more detailed mapping, OS maps and compass readings. Previous knowledge is utilised to support a study of the UK, focusing on regions, counties, landmarks and topography. This study demands analysis and pattern seeking to identify the features of the UK. Children also begin to develop the concept of cause and effect through geographical reasoning. For example, the interrelationship between physical features of the northern regions of the UK and the lower lands of East Anglia, that are covered in glacial deposits. Children learn to expand their understanding of human and physical features and apply it to the study of rivers. To enable accurate location of places around the globe, children study positioning through latitude and longitude. The Key Stage 2 curriculum offers the children opportunities to study location and position, with a focus on the water cycle, understanding and explaining the physical processes that determine why certain biomes have specific features in specific global locations. Using this knowledge, children study the River Nile and the Amazon River as locational examples, with these places featuring in the future learning in other subjects. In Key Stage 2, children develop their cultural awareness and diversity through studying topics such as European studies, studies of countries and people in Africa, and North and South America. A focus on the environmental regions of Europe, Russia, and North and South America draws attention to climate regions.

UPPER KEY STAGE 2

 In Year 5 & 6 the study of biomes and environmental regions builds upon world locations, latitude and longitude studies. World countries and major cities are located, identified and remembered retrieval practice. In upper KS2, the study of 4 and 6 figure grid references supports prior learning of reference systems and increases children's accuracy skills in mapping and fieldwork skills. Children will learn about terrain through the study of contour lines and OS map skills, and fieldwork. Route finding and decoding information through maps offers challenge through increasingly complex orienteering and mapping tasks in Year 6. Pupils take part in geographical analysis using patterns and comparison of both human and physical processes as well as the features present in chosen locations. These concepts are studied through understanding and comparing the Lake District, the Tatra mountains of Poland and the Blue mountains of Jamaica. Physical processes such as orogeny and glaciation are studied to explain significant change over long periods of time. The concept of a physical process is revisited through a study of earthquakes, mountains and volcanoes, using in-depth study to allow pupils the opportunity to have a more sophisticated knowledge of physical processes and make connections about how the environment has been shaped, as a result. Children will look at settlement, trade and economic activities which also links with the Windrush generation module in CUSP History. This develops an increasing knowledge about migration and the factors that push people away or draw people towards settlements.