Intent
At Carnforth School, we want our children to have a curiosity for the world around them; their locality, the surrounding areas and the wider world. They will ask and pose questions to further explore and understand their place in the world. We will provide children with the language necessary to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. Throughout the subject of geography, we will provide children the opportunity to develop their communication, co-operation and resilience.
As geographers at Carnforth, we want children to be inspired to be meteorologists, environmentalists, researchers, surveyors and cartographers.
Implementation
For each Geography topic, the class teacher chooses a hypothesising question, linked to Blooms Taxonomy – different tiered questions to increase higher order critical thinking skills which allow a child to think independently, find and fix mistakes, solve problems, evaluate alternatives, and reflect on their own beliefs. This ensures that children are constantly adding to their knowledge of the subject as well as deepening understanding. Before each unit, staff receive training in and are supported with planning their unit of work by the curriculum lead and through working collaboratively with other staff in the Black Pear Trust.
When planning, class teachers use the National Curriculum as well as the Geography Subject Syllabus document which outlines the progression for each year group. This includes ‘What an expected child in Geography looks like’ which was created in collaboration across the trust and is used as an assessment tool when evaluating children’s progress.
Each geography topic is enhanced by trips and visitors. This includes using the outdoor areas of our school to allow children to explore the world around them.