‘Geography is the tapestry that weaves the world together.’
Gil Grosvenor (former president of the National Geographic Society)
Intent
Through the White Rose geography curriculum, we strive to spark the curiosity and wonder about the world in which we all live. We believe children need to learn and make sense of the world, and to give them the skills to be able to find their own place and value in it. We facilitate this by learning about different people, cultures, landscapes and environments, resources and human and physical processes, and the links between them.
Aligning with the National Curriculum, children are taught to ask perceptive questions, think critically, analyse evidence, make judgements and develop their own sense of perspective, whilst creating an empathy for other people around the globe. We believe our carefully planned curriculum strives to create independent thinkers and successful life-long geographers.
Implementation
Curriculum progression
Our geography coverage is selected from subject content within the National Curriculum document and creates in depth studies of locations around our planet, viewing aspects at local, national and global levels, that are both comparable and contrasting within the communities of our schools. Our curriculum is based on four branches of knowledge:
Procedural knowledge:
Procedural knowledge represents the skills required to think and act like a geographer. These skills inform our planning of geography and allow children to deepen their knowledge throughout the year, and build on concepts from previous years.
Disciplinary knowledge:
Disciplinary knowledge represents the way geographers view their subject. We present this disciplinary knowledge to the children as geographical ‘lenses’. These lenses are referred to and revisited year on year, as the children move through school. They are:
Space |
Pace |
Cultural Understanding & Diversity |
Interdependence |
Sustainability |
Scale |
Change |
Understanding location – a specific geographical point on the earth’s surface |
Understanding the physical and human characteristic of a location and the meaning humans attach to it |
Appreciating the differences and similarities between people, places, environments and cultures |
Understanding the social, economic, environmental or political connections between places |
Exploring sustainable development and its impact on environmental interaction |
Appreciating different scales (from personal and local to national, international and global) |
Understanding how sequences of events and activities in the physical and human worlds lead to changes in places, landscapes and societies |
We firmly believe that by making the lenses explicit to the children, they are better equipped to become future geographers and that they can succeed in the subject throughout their educational careers.
Substantive knowledge
Substantive knowledge represents the facts that we want the children to know and recall through the teaching of geography. Through collaborative planning and inspiring teaching, children will retain more facts for longer periods of time.
Substantive concepts
Substantive concepts are terms that hold meaning in a geographical context, such as Rural, Landscape, Time Zone and Economy. These concepts help the children make links within geography and to other subjects within the curriculum.
Assessment
Children will be continually assessed on their skills as geographers using a carefully thought-out skills progression document based on the National Curriculum’s subject content.
Impact
Our challenging geography curriculum will engage the children, deepen their learning and instil within them a belief they can make a difference by learning about our diverse planet.
We strongly believe in the strength of our geography curriculum and, with the interweaving of British values such as tolerance, mutual respect and individual liberty, we are enabling children to be reflective members of the community who will begin to recognise the impact we are having on our planet and the legacy we are leaving for generations to come. Only by really understanding what the British Values mean will our learners be able to develop a character that prepares them for living in the community demonstrating tolerance and equality.
We intend the impact to be children who are prepared for life in high school and in Modern Britain and the world, and are enthused to become life-long geographers.