West Leigh Infant School

Intent

At West Leigh Infant School, we are fortunate to have a rich local environment with strong links to the community, and this is at the heart of our curriculum. Our vision is to ensure our children develop a greater knowledge and understanding of what makes our world a special place, and to better prepare them for their future role as global citizens. Our Geography curriculum begins with a focus on the children’s own locality and progresses to expanding their knowledge of countries and cultures elsewhere in the world. We develop this through a creative curriculum that inspires their learning. Geography at West Leigh Infant School is taught through providing children with opportunities to explore their local area and relate this to maps and their place in the country and the world. To help them do this, children are equipped with the skills to use a range of maps and atlases. We aim to offer all our children the experiences they may have missed as a result of limited opportunities during the pandemic. We identify the key geographical skills and knowledge that we want the children to learn and consolidate, and deliver this through a cross-curricular approach by having an umbrella topic each term. We regularly review our curriculum to ensure progression across the school, and to ensure that the children are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need in an ever-changing world.

Implementation

Our geography curriculum focuses on developing a sense of place that is underpinned by a core knowledge of facts, locations and vocabulary. We enable our children to build on their geographical knowledge and skills as they progress through the school. Teachers have a clear understanding of the progress of knowledge ensuring that prior knowledge and previous learning are built upon.

Our children will develop a deeper understanding of their local area through first-hand experiences within their immediate environment and surrounding areas. Strong links with the local community are utilized to enhance the children’s learning and provide rich experiences.  We build upon the children’s natural curiosity about other cultures, countries and places of interest through workshops, hook days and visitors.

• Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth. We start each unit with an assessment to find out what the children already know and where their interests lie. In KS1, children are provided with knowledge organisers detailing the key knowledge, skills and vocabulary that will be covered during each unit of work. In Early Years, knowledge organisers are used by teachers to plan experiences for pupils within the Continuous Provision. To ensure that children’s geographical knowledge and skills are embedded in their long-term memory, key learning, including vocabulary, is reviewed regularly.

In each year group, children contrast where they live with a non-European country in a different continent. This provides our children with a strong understanding of the world around them by the time they leave our school. Cross-curricular links enrich the learning experiences of our children. For example, YR’s Talk for Writing text, Handa’s Surprise, is taught alongside learning about Kenya. 

Impact

The impact of this curriculum intent and implementation will lead to outstanding progress over both key stages. A range of evidence shows that pupils develop a good understanding of place, locational knowledge and human/physical knowledge.

Pupils’ learning is recorded in a number of ways, including topic books and digital portfolios (Seesaw, YR). This reflects the varied and engaging geography curriculum in place which develops a range of geographical skills. Regular subject monitoring clearly demonstrates progression of knowledge and skills across the three year groups.

At the end of each unit, children’s learning is assessed against the starting point (pre-topic assessment). Teachers and subject leaders monitor progress through talking to pupils about their learning.

Our children leave West Leigh Infant School having reached at least age-related expectations for Geography, and most importantly as budding geographers.