Geography
School Intent: At Dobcroft Infant School, our intent is to create an exceptional, well-sequenced and ambitious curriculum, which challenges and excites all learners. Through quality first teaching and effectively planned provision, children will develop their ability to “know more, remember more and do more” to achieve clear end points.
Subject Intent: The design of the DIS Geography curriculum is based on the National Curriculum 2014.
Through teaching Geography in our school, we intend 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.
We believe that teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and both natural and human environments, together with an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. It is fundamental in a language rich curriculum, that children are introduced to, and expected to use, the correct and appropriate geographical vocabulary for their stage of development.
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.
We want our children to gain confidence and 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, including the positive contributions that they could make as informed global citizens.
Our End Point is to prepare pupils at DIS for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life and to guide our pupils towards becoming the global citizens of the future.
Our aims
In Geography we aim to:
- Stimulate interest and wonder in the world around us
- Study people and places and to understand how they relate to each other
- Learn about features of human and physical geography and equip pupils with the vocabulary to describe them
- Develop empathy for people living in different places
- Develop an understanding of our locality and cultures as well as those of others through the study of other places
- Help children develop an awareness of the environment and their responsibility to care for it
- Encourage appreciation of what 'global citizenship' means and the global 'rights of the child', linked to our school's work as a Unicef Rights Respecting School
- Develop a variety of skills including those of enquiry, problem-solving, ICT and investigation
- Teach map work and basic compass skills
- Show how to use a wide range of resources such as stories, pictures, photographs, role play, artefacts, fieldtrips and walks, visitors and ICT.
Teaching and Learning
The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in geography lessons. The principal aims are to develop skills and understanding as well as developing their technical knowledge. We do this through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities. Within lessons, we give children the opportunity both to work on their own and to collaborate with others, listening to other childrens idea's and treating these with respect.
Pupil voice
"I've made a map of my classroom, these are the tables, this is the book area. I like looking at maps." FS2 pupil
"I like to learn about all of the countries in the United Kingdom." Y1 pupil
"I've made a map of our classroom. The clock and red words are at the front and these are the desks." Y1 pupil
"We have learnt about continents. The hotest is Africa." Y2 pupil
"I use the globe to learn about different continents." Y2 pupil