Geography

Headlands Primary School | Geography Narrative

The NPAT Geography curriculum has been intentionally designed to ensure children develop substantive knowledge (factual content) alongside the development of disciplinary knowledge (the action taken within a specific subject to gain knowledge) as they learn the fundamental elements of what it is to be a geographer. Through key geographical high-dividend concepts, children will study a range of spaces including their local area and the wider world which is around them. The curriculum has been designed and sequenced to equip our children with a secure, coherent knowledge of their locality, the United Kingdom, weather patterns, and locations across the world. Units of work have been deliberately planned and sequenced within the long-term map to aid children’s retention of knowledge, using the principle of Cognitive Science.

The NPAT Geography curriculum is based on the National Curriculum 2014.

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time. (National Curriculum 2014)

The following high dividend concepts have been identified as part of the NPAT Geography curriculum: change, culture and diversity, scale, sense of place, space, sustainability and the environment. These will form the ‘Big Ideas’ and key conceptual understanding through which all geography will be taught. The concepts are frequently reinforced and developed. Teachers will make explicit reference to where children have met the concepts previously in the curriculum. These concepts are defined in the NPAT High-Dividend Concept Progression document. The progression of these concepts from EYFS to Upper KS2 is mapped out in the NPAT High-Dividend Concept Progression in Geography document.

The teaching of geography is driven by an enquiry question approach that seeks to capitalise on children’s curiosity and prior learning. Units of work are structured around an overarching geographical enquiry to ensure teaching is focused and children are working towards clearly defined outcomes. The overarching enquiry is broken down into smaller sub-enquiries to provide incremental progression that grows over a series of lessons to allow learning of content to be more manageable. The geography pedagogy and curriculum has been developed to ensure learning is not just encountered but remembered. The substantive knowledge content is detailed within the unit planning and knowledge organiser, disciplinary knowledge is mapped out with in the NPAT Disciplinary Knowledge progression in Geography document as well as within unit planning. At the heart of our curriculum approach is retrieval practice and revisiting knowledge. Retrieval practice involves deliberately recalling knowledge from memory to make learning stick and become connected in the schema. Units of work refer to learning from previous units to enable children to build their geographical knowledge over time as they progress through the curriculum.

The National Curriculum for Geography clearly outlines key substantive knowledge that children should gain, cumulatively, over the primary curriculum, beginning in EYFS. This is mapped in the NPAT Substantive Knowledge Progression in Geography document. The curriculum has been carefully constructed to ensure children obtain a solid understanding of key geographical concepts as well as substantive and disciplinary knowledge. The knowledge content is specified in detail and is taught to be remembered, not just encountered. Knowledge is sequenced and mapped deliberately and coherently. There are vertical and horizontal links which ensure the construction of a secure geographical schema. There will also be opportunities to make diagonal links to other disciplines which have been explicitly planned for.

Horizontal links will be explicitly made. E.g., In Year 1, children will learn about their local area in the Autumn term, which will be built upon in the summer term through a study of their local area and another area of the UK.

Vertical links will be made where knowledge and understanding are built upon from previous geography units e.g. In Year 3, the Spring unit (From North to South – how are spaces in England different?) will build upon knowledge and understanding of space from the Year 2 unit (How is Northampton different to a town in India?). In this Year 2 unit, there would be direct reference to Year 1 learning in the “Where do I live?” unit.

Diagonal links will be made, particularly where this is cross-curricular. e.g., links between Science and Geography - such as Environmental Change (Year 4 Science) with Sustainability and the Environment Units (Year 1, 3, 5 and 6 Geography) and Rocks, Soils and Fossils (Year3 Science) with Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes (Year 3 Geography).

Sustainability and the Environment are at the heart of the NPAT Geography curriculum with units explicitly linked in Years 1, 3, 5 and 6. It is also explored implicitly through the journey of the curriculum.

During EYFS, with reference to the NPAT Curriculum Frameworks for EYFS, children will begin to develop their geographical substantive, disciplinary and conceptual knowledge.

During Key Stage 1, children will begin to develop knowledge of their local area, an understanding of the United Kingdom, and the names of the 7 continents and 5 oceans. They will recognise weather patterns, seasonal changes and begin to learn basic geographical terms. They will use globes, maps and atlases, begin to compare locations and have opportunities to explore their immediate environment through fieldwork. The following areas of focus have been selected: Where do I live? How can I be sustainable in my local area? Where would you rather live – Northampton or Hunstanton? From farm to fork – how does your food travel? How is Northampton different to India? Are all deserts hot? This range of units will build geographical knowledge and an awareness of the locality using fieldwork. It will provide the opportunity for children to develop their awareness of their locality to the wider world.

During Lower Key Stage 2, children will be given the opportunity to develop their knowledge of their locality and the wider world. They will use globes, maps (GIS) and atlases, begin to compare locations and have opportunities to explore their immediate environment through fieldwork. The following areas of focus have been selected: What are mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes? From North to South – how are spaces in England different? What can England learn about sustainability from Europe? Why is the Rainforest Important to Me? What is a river? Year Four will also participate in the National Gallery Take One Picture Programme with explicit geography
links made to the painting each year.

During Upper Key Stage 2, children will broaden their locational knowledge to include a wide variety of places on each continent, including their main geographical characteristics. They will explore the natural processes of the Earth and consider the impact of people on our planet. They will continue to explore the world around them interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems which they will learn to use in detail. The following areas of focus have been selected: Where would you rather live- in Northampton, England or Northampton, USA? Why is there Global trade? Global Warming and Climate Change -are they the same thing? Where is Africa and what is it like? Why is water so valuable? Sustainability and the Environment – how can I make a difference? This final Year 6 unit is a School Designed Unit allowing teachers to plan for the needs of their children in their communities.

Key Geography vocabulary is specified and explicitly taught as part of the NPAT Geography Curriculum. The development of vocabulary progresses, is revisited and embedded throughout the curriculum journey.

Through engaging with the NPAT Geography curriculum from EYFS to Year Six children will move to secondary school with a sound locational knowledge of the world and an appreciation of the geographical features and events that make each space unique. They will understand similarities and differences across the world and be able to use geographical vocabulary to discuss these. They will be confident when using a variety of sources, including a range of maps and atlases. Children will understand how they, as Geographers can use fieldwork to increase their geographical knowledge and become proficient in applying this disciplinary knowledge. They will understand the importance of being sustainable and how they can affect the world around them positively.