We are aspiring geographers!

At Southville Primary School, we aspire to be geographers. Our geography curriculum will inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world we live in and the people who inhabit it. We will equip the children with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, formation and use of landscapes. The topic of environmental sustainability will play a significant part in our geography curriculum, ensuring children are well informed and equipped for dealing with their future environment and the impact they can have.

We will do this by:

• Making sure that geography objectives are delivered in the context of an appropriate topic within our Immersive Learning curriculum wherever possible
• Ensuring the children learn to use resources such as maps, globes, atlases, aerial photos and digital maps in a planned and progressive way within and across the years
• Contextualising the identifying and naming of countries, continents and oceans so that the children understand how the world is pieced together
• Revisiting key areas of the geography curriculum throughout the children’s time with us to aid their memory, knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live
• Utilising the opportunities that our local area and the vibrant city of Bristol offer in order to develop in the children an understanding and appreciation of the culture and diversity of this great city 
• Providing our children with relevant educational visits that enhance the learning that happens in school.

Implementation

The teaching and learning of geography is taught as part of our immersive curriculum and in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum. For each year group, at least one unit of study is driven and led by geography. Knowledge is also taught, reinforced and recapped during other units of study. 

Teachers use progression grids to ensure lessons are pitched accurately and are focused on key geographical knowledge and skills. Lessons are carefully sequenced to ensure learning and knowledge is built up over time. Teachers build on prior learning - both within and across year groups so that it is clear how, for example, children approach their understanding of locational knowledge progressively from year 1 up to year 6. Within each unit, teacher’s planning builds up and develops the following areas: 

• geographic and skills fieldwork
• locational knowledge
• human and physical
• place knowledge

Children enjoy Forest School sessions led by a trained Forest School specialist. These sessions provide a number of opportunities for children to enhance, support and bring to life their knowledge and understanding of geography skills and fieldwork.