Intent
The geography curriculum at Brookfield is designed to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with our pupils for the rest of their lives. Children engage with a range of thematic and regional studies, beginning with their home and immediate environment and building up to the wider world. Our aim is for Brookfield children to see themselves as geographers. Children learn how to confidently carry out geographical inquiries, and apply their skills and knowledge to better understand the world around them. By the time they leave Brookfield, children will be able to inquire, carry out fieldwork and use their expert map skills. We use half termly themes to enable the children to make links between geography and other curriculum subjects. This further embeds their learning.
Implementation
Keeping in line with the National curriculum, children at Brookfield study a range of local, British, European and world geography. We use the four key areas of geographical knowledge (place knowledge, locational knowledge, human and physical knowledge and geographical knowledge and fieldwork) to shape what is taught in each unit.
Our Brookfield curriculum is tailored to represent the backgrounds of our children and so we choose countries to study based on the diverse heritage of our pupils. This has included a unit on Tanzania in year 1 and The Caribbean in year 4. Teachers ensure that resources do not reinforce harmful stereotypes of countries or societies by being balanced and well thought out in order to create an accurate impression. All children, including those with SEND, are supported to fully access the geography curriculum.
Our aim is to inspire our students to develop a fascination with the world around them, where they come from, other cultures and caring for our planet. We achieve this by using a hands on approach, including fieldwork, collecting data, outdoor learning and research. Students work towards their ‘beautiful work’ for each unit. This is added to their Geography Portfolio which travels with them from year 1 to year 6. In keeping a portfolio of work, students can build on prior learning and make stronger links between previously taught units. This enables our pupils to become confident and competent geographers. We also now use Google Sites to document each unit of work. Children can access these sites at home and in class to recap previous learning and to celebrate their achievements in Geography.
Impact
Brookfield children enjoy learning Geography. Our new curriculum and extra half termly planning time has allowed teachers the space to plan creative and engaging lessons which aid pupils’ knowledge recall and deep understanding of geographical features. Our progression plan should ensure that all children are able to use geographical vocabulary and develop geographical skills and inquiry.