Geography

What does Geography look like at Vicarage Park School?

Clayton Fournier- Subject Lead  

At Vicarage Park School we teach through a thematic topic approach, making links across subjects and previous topics taught. Geography is a subject driver for the topics we teach in half terms 3 and 6, however elements are also covered through other topic and curriculum areas. See Appendix 1. 

Through our Geography curriculum, as well as delivering the knowledge expectation of the National Curriculum, we also plan to ensure the progression of skills such as map work, location of major countries, and cities, geographical understanding of land use and physical make-up of the world. Through our two key threads (substantive concepts) of ‘Identity’ and ‘Journeys’ the pupils will learn: 

IDENTITY:-where themselves, our school, Kendal, Cumbria, the U.K., Europe, India and American, cultures fit into the world. (Human), and how the identity of place is affected and altered by the interaction with people (Physical). 

JOURNEYS:-  about all the journeys that occur in life such as rivers, certain habitats, human and physical aspects of geography.  

The children will learn through various teaching styles, collaborative learning discussion sessions and critical thinking activities. Critical thinking encompasses many of the skills children needs to access the whole curriculum but play a key part in the delivery of humanities such as History and Geography. Learning opportunities include inventing, making analogies, formulating hypotheses and suggesting alternatives. It helps them filter the information they take in and select what is most relevant to the task in hand. Learning is sequential-building on knowledge and skills learnt before and thinking about how that might link to future learning and experiences. Specific attention and thought is given to meeting the needs of disadvantaged pupils to address and develop cultural capital.