At The Annunciation Catholic Infant School, it is our aim to provide children with the knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and skills that they need in order to reach their potential as individuals and within the community. Geography lessons at The Annunciation Catholic Infant School inspire our children with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which we hope, will remain with each child for the rest of their lives.  We aim to develop children’s interest in both their own surroundings and in the variety of physical and human conditions in the wider world.  Geography should provide an interesting and exciting way for children to engage with both their local area and the fascinating aspects of the world they live in.  We believe it is important to provide our children with opportunities to use a range of investigative problem-solving skills both in and outside the classroom, to develop a deeper understanding of geography. Our geography teaching aims to support this by developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes towards confidently engaging and learning through a variety of activities differentiated for each individual to enable them to meet their full potential within the subject area.

The geography curriculum offers a logical sequence of geographical topics to support progression and curriculum coverage. As a school, we use Oddizzi’s Scheme of Work in KS1 to support our geography planning. The geography curriculum involves three geography-led topics each year. Skills and knowledge acquired in the first two geography topics feed into a place-based study in the third topic. Our aim with the geography curriculum is for children to accumulate knowledge as they progress. For example, in Year 1’s local area study, children learn basic geographical concepts, knowledge, vocabulary and skills through the concrete experience of a familiar place. This then allows them to make meaningful comparisons with the Zambian locality of Mugumareno Village in Year 2.

In each year group, high quality books which are related to learning, are used to stimulate, enliven and enrich the geography curriculum. Using books and stories supports geographical teaching and develops children's knowledge and sense of place, creative and reflective thinking, enquiry and problem-solving skills. The use of language is also an integral part of learning geography and relevant to our school context. It is through language that children understand geographical concepts, develop geographical thinking and communicate geographical ideas.

In the EYFS, regular observations and assessments of learning are recorded using, Tapestry, an online journal and contribute to a summative assessment at the end of EYFS using the Early Years Outcomes for Understanding the World: ‘People and Communities’ and ‘The World’. In KS1 summative assessment takes place through the use of Oddizzi’s End of Topic Assessments. These allow staff to monitor pupils' outcomes and tailor further support to those who require it. Oddizzi’s Show What You Know Assessments help teachers to evaluate how much our pupils have learnt during a topic.

EYFS

The EYFS lays the foundations for all future learning by showing the relevance of Geography to pupils through first hand experiences. The emphasis is on exploring and investigating their immediate environment. Pupils engage age in planting activities, observing and caring for plants and animals. Children in Reception go on trips to explore nature and wild life in local parks. Pupils are taught the importance of protecting the environment by saving water, electricity, recycling and disposing of litter safely. Pupils are developing an awareness that Burnt Oak is a busy town in London, England. They learn to appreciate that people who live in other countries may speak different languages or practise different religions. 

KS2

At the Annunciation Catholic  Junior School, we believe that it is essential for our pupils to obtain a deep understanding of geographical processes, relative to their age and ability, in order for them to develop a greater appreciation for the natural world and human interaction. We intend therefore, to provide pupils with a stimulating learning environment in which they can be exposed to rich and varied experiences, so that pupils can make better sense of themselves, their local community and their role in the wider world. It is for this reason, that as children progress through KS2, we aim to deliver a geography curriculum that is engaging and fascinating, so that pupils can gain invaluable skills, such as critical thinking, creativity and enquiry skills, that will provide them with the opportunity to make a good assessment of their progress. With this in mind, pupils will be motivated to study geography beyond kS2, and their fascination and curiosity about the world, will equip them to make worthwhile contributions to their local community and beyond. 

Our curriculum therefore, adopts an enquiry approach whereby pupils explore and make investigations, so that they can learn by doing and extend their cultural capital. In doing so, pupils will explore various avenues to learn about the interaction between physical and human geography, so that they can increase their knowledge of locational and names of places, along with geographical skills, such as mapwork and field study which are enhanced by the use of technology (e.g. Digimap). Through these medium, pupils will make comparisons with landscapes around the world, and hopefully, pupils will understand that human influences can change over time, and this can have both positive and negative impact on sustainability. 

As pupils deepen their understanding of geographical themes, they are encouraged to make connection with other subject areas, such as history, computing, art, maths and English, so that their study of geography can be enriched. We also ensure that through careful monitoring, pupils make steady progression from Years 3 – 6, and that they can articulate their learning using geographical vocabulary, project work and collaborative learning. We acknowledge that children come from different cultural backgrounds, and therefore our geography curriculum aim to provide them with the opportunity to build on earlier experiences whilst exploring themes such, volcanoes, earthquakes, investigating coasts, rivers and mountains, along with the study of the United Kingdom. Other regions of the world such as our European neighbours, as well as regions of the United States and South America are also studied. Given that as people’s attitude towards the natural environment change, so does the climate around the world. Therefore, children in each year group are given the opportunity to explore climate change, and are encouraged to make suggestions to deal with such an important issue in our world. Overall, it is hoped that over time, our geography curriculum will not only inspire pupils to develop their understanding of geographical themes that will expand their horizons, but they will seek to use the skills that they have learnt to make a positive impact on the world.

The Annunciation Catholic Infant School

020 89592325