Geography

What do we want to achieve for our children?
It is our intent for the Geography element of our school curriculum to inspire pupils with 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. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, through their time at Culworth Primary Academy and into their further education.
Our geography curriculum is woven in to our Creative Curriculum where possible, in order to fully engage the children and ensure that they understand geographical links with other curriculum areas. At Culworth Primary Academy, our geography curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive as well as transferable. Through revisiting these areas of learning regularly, children will remember more, know more and understand more. As pupils progress, we want our children to gain confidence and have practical experiences of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
How will we achieve this?
Our geography curriculum is delivered primarily through our termly topics that cover a wide range of areas linked to the National Curriculum. Each class covers the same topic at the same time, differentiating the learning according to age. The key geographical skills as set out in the National Curriculum underpin the planning, teaching and learning of geography at Culworth Primary Academy. These skills are: collecting and analysing a range of data gathered through fieldwork, interpreting sources of geographical information, including maps, globes and aerial photographs and communicating geographical information in a variety of ways. Cross-curricular links will be evident in our history curriculum; art work is often linked to our topic and writing skills will be consolidated and applied in geography lessons where appropriate. 
Each unit includes opportunities for children to learn different, relevant geographical skills using our progression documents to ensure that learning is at an age-appropriate level. Through these topics, pupils will develop a good understanding of our local geography and environment. The local area is fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes as well as opportunities for learning outside the classroom to be embedded in practice. In addition, we plan regular school trips to other areas of geographical important to provide further, relevant and contextual learning.  
What will this look like and how will it support my child now and in the future?
The learning taking place in geography lessons at Culworth Primary Academy will be evident through interactive and engaging classroom displays linked our topics and in our topic books that display the highlights of our learning over the course of a term. Whilst doing this, we aim to fuel excitement and curiosity year upon year motivating our pupils to be passionate for geography readying them to become pioneers of the future. Our pupils will have thoroughly enjoyed learning about geography, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future. As children progress through the school, they will deepen their knowledge, understanding and appreciation  of their local area and it’s place within the wider geographical context.