Kings Hill School Primary & Nursery

Geography

Intent

Our geography curriculum is designed to generate a passion for the subject that leads to continued enquiry, future personal interest and possibly careers relating to this area of study.

At Kings Hill School and Nursery, the intent of our geography curriculum is to: 

• Foster in children an interest, understanding and enjoyment of geography.
• Enable children to gain knowledge of their locality and the processes which have changed their world.
• Encourage children to make comparisons between the environment and communities at a local, national and global level.
• Nurture an enquiring mind, the ability to investigate, analyse, evaluate and communicate findings and opinions.
• Develop specific geographical skills through the use of maps, atlases and measuring equipment (weather).
• Improve factual knowledge of geographical features throughout the world (oceans, continents)
• Enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and its people.
• Deliver exciting first hand geographical experiences throughout outdoor learning.

Implementation

Our delivery of the curriculum enables children to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences plus build upon these skills as they progress through the school. Content is selected carefully to allow richer and deeper learning experiences. Lessons are learned for a specific purpose and real life applications are emphasised to make learning relevant.

Teachers have a good knowledge of the subject with the Geography Lead providing effective support for those teaching outside their main areas of expertise. As part of the planning and teaching process, teachers implement the following:

• Teaching is designed to help learners remember the content over time and knowledge builds sequentially. 
• Lessons which carefully plan for progression and depth - concentrating on the geographical skills suited to the age group.
• Trips to locations away from school and visiting experts who will enhance knowledge. 
• The checking of learners’ understanding systematically, identifying misconceptions accurately and providing clear, direct feedback - responding and adapting teaching as necessary. Pre-empting such misconceptions can be used as ‘hook’ questions at the start of units of study.
• Teachers present subject matter clearly, promoting and encouraging appropriate discussion about the subject matter, capitalising on the unique viewpoints provoked by the subject.
• Learner accessible and interactive topic displays in classrooms.
• Encourage attendance of an extra-curriculum Geography committee devised to enlighten young minds to the scope of the subject - ‘The Eco Committee’.

Impact

Our Geography Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. Progress is measured by what children know and remember in Geography.

In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
• A celebration of learning across the school through high quality displays in communal areas.
• Enjoyment of the subject’s delivery with ‘Pupil Voice’ sessions facilitated to discuss their learning.
• Learners are prepared for their next stage of education.

Geography News

• Monday 18 December 2023 Year 5 Outdoor Day Year 5 consolidated their learning of coasts in their outdoor learning day. The children used sand, slate and different sized pebbles to create 3D models depicting headlands and bays, cliffs, caves, arches, stacks and stumps. They thought about how erosion would affect their coastline and how this would change over time.
• Monday 18 December 2023 Year 4 River Outdoor Learning Year 4 enjoyed another fantastic outdoor day with Mrs Gilman. The children began the day making a model of a river’s course from source to mouth. They used earth, rocks, labels and boxes to create these, impressing us with their recall. Following this the children made rivers, damns and floodplains using earth, trays and water… all great fun. Year 4 then made miniature water cycles in bags which they have attached to the classroom walls to see the cycle happen live in class.
• Monday 9 October 2023 Are You Atlas Wise? In our ‘Are you atlas wise?’ geography topic this term, the children have really enjoyed exploring OS maps. They have been locating and describing features using map symbols, 4 figure grid references and 8 point compass directions. They then applied these skills to planning a route around London incorporating tourist attractions and a tube journey.
• Sunday 8 October 2023 Year 2 Outdoor Day The children had a chance to explore geography by making a mud map of the UK. They took pride in not only making the mud map but also in labelling the continents, countries and oceans correctly. Well done Year 2!
• Friday 15 September 2023 Year 1 Fieldwork Year 1 have become geographers this week, completing their first ever bit of fieldwork.
• Friday 13 January 2023 Year 2 What's Our World Like? In geography this week, the children started their new topic - 'What's our world like' The children enjoyed comparing the difference between a flat map and a globe. We then investigated where in the world we have been as a class and whether we had visited all of the continents. The children each bought in a picture of their favourite place that they have been to around the world and laid it out on a big world map. They enjoyed sharing their experiences as a class and what the country was like. Countries near to the equator were very popular in Year 2!
• Monday 3 October 2022 Year 3 Atlas Detectives Year 3 have had a brilliant few weeks exploring the British Isles as part of their new Geography topic. Over the last couple of lessons, the children have become Atlas Detectives. They have learnt all about atlases and how to use the index and contents page effectively. The children were able to find different locations around the British Isles and record these page numbers and grid references correctly.
• Friday 30 September 2022 Year 1 Local Area Year 1 took their learning into the local area during Geography last week. They were able to use their maps to track the route of our walk and were able to spot some local landmarks. In science, they have been learning about their senses. Children were given the challenge of identifying some different smells in our investigation- some smells were nicer than others!
• Friday 27 May 2022 Climate Change Year 3 had a fantastic outdoor day this week. All their activities were themed around our topic of climate change. They thought carefully about what we can do for our school grounds to help our environment. Firstly, the children made seed bombs and scattered them around the grounds. After this, the children went on a 'bio blitz' searching for various mini beasts and creatures in the pond. To finish our day, they made small homes to help the mini beasts thrive. The children worked cooperatively and showed lots of resilience throughout the day.
• Wednesday 15 December 2021 Year 5 Geography Year 5 have been enjoying their Geography topic looking at coasts and the formation of coastal landforms through the processes of erosion, transportation and deposition. They used their knowledge to complete 3D maps, modelling coastal features like bays, headlands, caves, arches, stacks, stumps and spits using a variety of stones, slate, sand and pebbles. We also discussed different types of erosion (biological, chemical and physical) and carried out some experiments to show these.Just for fun to finish off the day we all made Christmas trees out of pine cones and got thoroughly covered in glitter!
• Tuesday 23 November 2021 Year 4 Horton Kirby River Trip Year 4 had a fantastic day at Horton Kirby doing a river study. The children went down to the River Darent and then measured the different speeds of the flow of the river at different points according to meanders in the rivers. Each child had a different task and took turns to do them all; there were droppers, catchers, timers and recorders. The children all got a bit wet and muddy, but had a fantastic time. Year 4 then went back to the education centre and looked at the journey of the River Darent on maps and how it joined different rivers and eventually the sea. The children then made models using mud, sticks, stones and Lego, they had to work out how to protect houses using dams and flood plains. What a great day out!