Geography at Brightwell
"We are Geographers"
Curriculum Intent
At Brightwell School, we aim for our pupils to be skilful geographers, map-readers, global citizens and environmentalists. We strive to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and people within it – we want them to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world around them, as well as their place in it by providing them with opportunities to expand their cultural capital and experiences of the world.
Our curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive throughout the children’s time at Brightwell but that are also transferable to other curriculum areas and which are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Through their work in geography, pupils learn about the area they live in and compare their life in this locality to other regions in the United Kingdom, as well as other areas around the world. Through their growing knowledge and understanding of human geography, our aim is that pupils will gain an appreciation of life in other cultures. We hope that pupils learning about other countries and cultures will instill a desire to visit and experience other cultures on a first-hand basis. Our curriculum aims to motivate pupils to find out about the physical world and enables them to recognise the importance of sustainable development for the future of mankind.
Curriculum Implementation
As a school, we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high quality History curriculum and so Geography at Brightwell is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning. Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each blocked topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school. At the beginning of each topic, children are able to convey what they know already, as well as what they would like to find out – this informs the programme of study, providing a solid base from which their understanding and knowledge can grow.
Consideration is given to how greater depth will be taught, learnt and demonstrated within each lesson, as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. Cross-curricular outcomes are planned for as much as possible, with the local area being fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with many opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.
Geographical enquiries have a clear structure so that over the course of KS1 and KS2, children develop increasingly complex skills in enquiry, map work and direction, as well as developing their knowledge and understanding of places and geographical processes.
Curriculum Impact
Through the quality first teaching of Geography taking place, and through the on-gong assessment and questioning opportunities throughout individual Geography units, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways. Not only will it allow our children to have an excellent knowledge of where places are, what they are like and how human and physical environments are interrelated (which they can confidently talk about using subject specific vocabulary), it will also teach them to develop key geographical skills and techniques. School trips provide further relevant and contextual learning and our engagement with the local environment ensures that children learn through varied and first-hand experiences of the world around them.
Outcomes in books show a broad and balanced geography curriculum and subject leader monitoring acts as an evidence base for the impact of the sequence in place to establish the level at which pupils know more and remember more.
Please see our curriculum overviews on the class pages for further details of what the children are learning.
