Shay Lane Primary School
Shay Lane Primary School
Geography
Intent Statement
At Shay Lane Primary School, we believe every child is a geographer. Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Shay Lane children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. Increasingly using their prior knowledge to solve problems and develop the sophistication of Geography. The geography curriculum enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferrable to other curriculum areas. Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. At Shay Lane our intent, when teaching geography, is to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and people within it; to promote the children’s 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. Opportunities will exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom. This will allow them to enrich their knowledge by: visiting places they may not normally consider places of geographical interest and conducting geographical surveys within the local area.
Implementation
By ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in geography, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school, developing on existing skills and knowledge. Geography is taught as part of termly topics, focusing on knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum. At Shay Lane Primary School, we strive to ensure that geography has the same standing as core subjects, through our creative curriculum, as we seek routine opportunities to involve geography in our learning. We feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences and see the multi-faceted nature of learning through different subjects.
Impact
At Shay Lane Primary School, the impact of quality first teaching in geography will foster a love and enthusiasm for the subject.
- Well-constructed and well-taught lessons provide pupils with opportunities to research and apply skills independently – skills essential for lifelong learning. Book looks indicate high expectations and reflect what pupils have learned to a good/very good standard and all learning builds towards clearly defined end points.
- Pupils will leave KS2 with a strong knowledge of their local area and a confidence of the location of other countries and cities around the world. All pupils will be able to discuss and recall a variety of events and where they happened in the world, as well as explain aspects of human and physical geography and confidently use maps and atlases (physical and digital).
- Knowledge and skills will have developed progressively to not only enable them to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to prepare pupils to become competent geographers in secondary education. We want pupils to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about geography, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.
Pupil Voice
Below is an insight into what our pupils have said about geography.
Year 1:
"I feel proud in geography when we get to learn new, exciting stuff."
Year 2:
"Geography makes me feel happy because we get to be explorers when we learn through fieldwork."
Year 3:
"Geography is important because if we were to visit a country we've learnt about, we will have some knowledge about it. Also, if we get lost one day, we can use the skills we've learnt with maps and compasses to help us."
Year 4:
"This subject fascinates me. Sometimes it's hard because there's a lot of vocabulary I haven't heard of before but I enjoy the challenge."
Year 5:
"Geography makes me feel curious and interested because I always want to ask a lot of questions during the lesson."
Year 6:
"I enjoy geography because it's interesting to learn about places we might not ever be able to visit in person."
Our Geography Gallery
Nursery
Reception
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Great Big Green Week
To celebrate the Great Big Green Week and spread awareness of its importance, our pupils were invited to participate in a competition.
They were expected to complete a sculpture at home, using only recycled materials of something that is harming our environment or something that we need to protect in order to have a sustainable future. Each sculpture was also accompanied by a piece of writing explaining each creation.
Here were all of our amazing entries:
