Geography
A high-quality geography education will inspire a curiosity and fascination of the world for the citizens of the future.
It should inspire and equip pupils with a knowledge and understanding of the diverse places, people and environments of their world.
Geography helps pupils to understand the interaction of Earth’s key physical and human processes and how these features are interconnected and change over time.
Our curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:
- develop contextual knowledge of places of importance globally
- understand that there are different physical and human processes and key features of their world that are interdependent and change over time
- gain and deploy a geographically grounded understanding of abstract terms and core vocabulary which deepens over time and enables children to be geographers i.e. ‘season’ ‘vegetation’ ‘habitat’ ‘climate’
- understanding that a confident geographer much use first hand observation, experiences of field work and a range of resources and information to deepen their awareness of geographical processes to enhance their locational and place knowledge
- confidently communicate their geographical information in a variety of different ways; deepening and enhancing as they grow older
Click below to read the full Geography Curriculum:
Knowledge Organisers
At Somerdale, we use knowledge organisers for geography and history. They are one-to-two-page sheets summarising the essential facts, key vocabulary, and subject-specific skills for each enquiry question. Children are given these at the start of each unit and they are referred to throughout the unit to support retention of information and ensure focus in lessons is largely devoted to the key skills needed to be a successful geographer or historian. Knowledge organisers are working documents.
Each lesson, pupils highlight the knowledge and skills which they have retained, allowing teaching staff and themselves as learners to see areas of strength and areas which need further study. Low stake quizzes (assessment) are used primarily to assess understanding.
