Why do we teach Geography at The Whitehouse?
At The Whitehouse, we follow the Geography national curriculum. In Geography lessons, we want to inspire in the children a curiosity and a fascination about the world and people within it. Living in Hull and the surrounding area, we want to promote understanding and interest of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. We want to encourage the children to show their respect for their local, national and international environment. We are aware that some of our children have few opportunities to travel outside their immediate area and for this reason we want to promote practical fieldwork studies to give them memorable experiences in the wider community.
What is the Geography curriculum offer at The Whitehouse?
Geography is taught in six week blocks with the children having a lesson every week. We identify key vocabulary for each topic and this will be displayed in the classroom. Tasks are selected and designed to create a more hands-on approach allowing children to learn through kinaesthetic learning. Children are given access to a range of resources such as atlases, digital technology, books, photographs as well as field visits to gain a better understanding of the geographical concepts being taught. We are aware that many of our children have few geographical skills and struggle to use appropriate geographical vocabulary. For this reason, we plan collaborative tasks where the children explore and develop the positive and negative impacts of human and physical geography on daily life. In our school, we aim for geography lessons to provide excellent opportunities to support all learning abilities through investigations, outdoor learning and analysing data.
How are knowledge and skills acquired in Geography?
Some of the children in our school, struggle to have locational awareness so we aim to teach a sense of place through the use of maps in many formats including digital and concrete maps. We want to continue the children’s journey to become globally aware citizens and to be able to identify significant places in the world. For this reason, we daily watch Newsround to give them real time knowledge of the world. Part of the Geography expectations is that the children have opportunities to collect, analyse and communicate a range of data. We have found this is best promoted through practical activities and field study work.
What enrichment opportunities do pupils receive in Geography?
At The Whitehouse, we aim to provide immersive experiences and practical activities in Geography to make lessons more accessible for all pupils. Our teachers plan lessons that include:
- field work in the locality, with regular opportunities to explore the school setting, use of photographs to label and identify features in the environment.
- collaborative tasks where the children use their communication and turn-taking skills to work as a group to create models of environments showing their understanding and knowledge of geographical con concepts vocabulary.
- visits beyond the local area to give the children the experience of other locations and unknown environments.
- Opportunities to celebrate the children’s learning through sharing their geographical understanding with both their peers, their parents and the wider community through school assemblies, newsletters and social media. This supports their development of their communication skills and promotes their sense of achievement and self-esteem.
