Geography
Through Geography the children will learn about God’s wonderful creation of the world, as the Bible says ‘God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation’ (Genesis 2:3). They will learn about how important our environment is and how we should look after our surroundings and care for our world and all living things.
At Bowdon Church School we believe that the humanities provides answers to the questions children have about the world around them. Through enjoyment of the subject pupils will be stimulated to think about their own place in the world, their values, British values and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.
Rooted in the aims, purpose, and subject content of the National Curriculum, our Geography curriculum is built on the understanding that Geography is a subject driven by curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Developing knowledge, skills and understanding of not only what places and people are like now or in the past, but also discovering what might be in the future, and how we, as citizens of our own geographical landscapes have the ability and opportunity to shape the future.
Making strong links with our History curriculum, our Geography curriculum enables our pupils to gain a sense of place, people and culture whilst developing an understanding of how people, places and communities are connected both locally and globally.
Intent
Geography is, by nature, a subject of curiosity and fascination. At Bowdon Church School we aim to foster children’s interest through a curriculum underpinned by Christian values, strengthened through enquiry that channels confident, happy, independent and resilient learners.
- Pupils are encouraged to have a curiosity for the world around them and understand that to become true geographers they must ask investigative questions, why?
- The Geography curriculum is designed to develop skills and knowledge that are progressive as well as transferrable
- All pupils can access the Geography curriculum appropriate to their needs- support for specific pupils can be provided, with consideration to children who require further challenge
- Pupils develop skills and knowledge that are transferrable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
- We aim to ensure that when pupils leave us, they will have an inherent fascination and care for the world and its people
Implementation
At Bowdon, Geography has been planned coherently to build children’s understanding progressively from their local area and slowly into the wider world. Geography is taught to a high standard discretely however our curriculum map allows pupils to thread cross-curricular ideas smoothly with each topic complimenting their History topic.
All Geography lessons are underpinned by an enquiry question, allowing children to build curiosity, ask questions and investigate answers in a variety of ways. The curriculum is designed to make learning relevant and enjoyable for our Bowdon children. At the beginning of each topic, children are able to convey what they already know as well as what they would like to find out. This informs our teachers planning to ensure that lessons are relevant, personal and take account of children's different starting points. Comparison studies in each year group are progressive, from comparing their own homes in Year 1 to ‘Are we damaging our world? New York vs Manchester’ in Year 6. A location study each year ensures that skills and knowledge are built on and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning. The local area is fully utilised, school trips and fieldwork are provided to give first hand experiences.
As with all other subject curriculum areas we understand the value of vocabulary- we explain key words clearly and practically, encouraging pupils to use technical vocabulary accurately in order to gain confidence and precision in their work.
Through a wide range of experiences our children will learn about the features, diversity and wonder of our important world and how it should be treated, setting them up to be responsible global citizens.
Impact
Our children’s journey in Geography begins with ‘Where do we live?’- the impact of our curriculum aims to provide children with life skills that they will use in their life forever, first and foremost we aim to give children a sense of place. With this, we want our pupils to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Geography, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future. Our children’s journey as geographers ends with ‘What will our world look like in the future?’, requiring children to use their sense of place to explore what they can do in their world to make a change. We prepare children for this so they can be confident and articulate, expressive with technical vocabulary and inspired to be curious explorers of our world.