Geography          

 Aims

At Victoria Road we aim to inspire the children’s natural curiosity and interest to ask and answer questions about the world around them and the part they play in maintaining it and supporting its future. 

We aim to ensure that all pupils:

• Develop a sense of awe and wonder about the world around them
• Are equipped with geographical skills to develop their knowledge through studying places, people, natural and human environments
• Develop their geographical knowledge about diverse places, people and resources
• Have the opportunity to learn through doing - using fieldwork, wherever possible, to experience new ideas, concepts and skills to make learning relevant
• Have the opportunity to use their newly acquired and developing geographical skills in all subject areas. 
• Have access to good geography teaching and learning so that it fosters enquiry skills such as researching, observation, evidence gathering and analysis, measurement and recording
• Develop a bank of geographical language and vocabulary that they can understand and use
• Leave Victoria Road with a passion for exploring and understanding our world, near and far and be able to know their way around their local area
• Have a strong understanding of our changing environment and the need to take care of the resources we have on this planet and the very important role they can play in preserving this for their future
• Will learn how their environment impacts their lives and the impact their lives have on their environment

 Implementation

At Victoria Road we follow the 2014 National Curriculum for Geography and deliver this through an enquiry based curriculum. Each unit poses a geographical question to spark curiosity in our children and encourage them to discover and begin to ask their own geographical questions. 

We have based our curriculum on the Focus Learning Challenge Curriculum which allows units to be adapted and personalised to our school learning environment and local context. We have developed our Geography Curriculum tailored to the needs and interests of our children and reflects the diversity of our community

We teach three geography units a year in each year group and through learning, research and discovery children find the answer to this question and many more. 

The unit starts with linking new learning to prior knowledge - ‘what do we already know about this topic?’ and builds on this, as children work through a sequence of key learning points in each unit. Clear knowledge and end points are taught with children given the time to revisit these facts and check their understanding before demonstrating their learning in a small group, presentation or double spread page. 

We value outdoor learning as this means immersing the children in ‘real life’ contexts so that they may discover as well as problem solve. We aim to increase our children's experiences with a vast range of rich opportunity utilising resources and expertise across the Ashford Community. 

Our humanities curriculum follows a cycle of ‘Link it’, ‘Learn it’, ‘Check it’, ‘Show it’, ‘Know it’ (Make it stick) to ensure children are linking to previous learning, learning key pieces of new knowledge, demonstrating their understanding and then rehearsing skills in order to reinforce this new learning and ensure children know and remember more with each unit they explore.

We have sequenced our curriculum to ensure that children have a confident knowledge of the local area and then learn about the UK before moving on to continents and larger countries. We then move back to the local area looking at more detailed maps in year 6 as the children get ready for their move to local secondary schools. We compare and contrast areas within the UK throughout to give children a firm base in which to form their understanding. 

We have also ensured that throughout our curriculum all children have the opportunity to look at sustainability, resources and climate change and the impact they have on this and the responsibility they have as the next generation to make changes. We encourage all children to make the commitment to sustainable development and appreciation of global citizenship.

 Impact

Our children leave Victoria Road with a strong sense of belonging, championing our school values of Honesty, Fairness, Enjoyment, Respect and courage; this is evident in their work as critical thinker, problem solvers, collaborators in Geography and in their respect they show in taking care of their local and global environment. 

As the children work through the school they develop the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it. Children’s knowledge and skills develop progressively as they move through the school, not only to enable them to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to prepare them to become competent geographers in secondary education.

Our children know no limits and feel inspired to understand more about how they can contribute to their community as town planners, conservationists, climatologists or weather forecasters. They are secure in the geographical skills and knowledge acquired during their time in Victoria Road and this is evident in the high quality work they produce.