Geography

Through their work in geography, children learn about their local area and they compare life in this area with that in other regions in the United Kingdom and in the rest of the world.  They learn how to draw and interpret maps, and they develop the skills of research, investigation, analysis and problem-solving.  Through their growing knowledge and understanding of human geography, children gain an appreciation of life in other cultures.  Geography teaching also motivates children to find out about the physical world and enables them to recognise the importance of sustainable development for the future of mankind.

The objectives of teaching geography in our school are: 

• to enable children to gain knowledge and understanding of places in the world;
• to increase children’s knowledge of other cultures and, in so doing, teach a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural country;
• to allow children to learn graphic skills, including how to use, draw and interpret maps;
• to enable children to know and understand environmental problems at a local, regional and global level;
• to encourage in children a commitment to sustainable development, and an appreciation of what ‘global citizenship’ means;
• to develop in children a variety of other skills, including those of enquiry, problem-solving, ICT, investigation, and that of presenting their conclusions in the most appropriate way.

Teaching and learning style

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our geography lessons.  We believe in whole-class teaching methods, and we combine these with enquiry-based research activities.  We encourage children to ask as well as answer geographical questions.  We offer them the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as maps, statistics, graphs, pictures, and aerial photographs, and we enable them to use ICT in geography lessons where this serves to enhance their learning.  Children take part in role-play and discussions, and they present reports to the rest of the class.  They engage in a wide variety of problem-solving activities.  Wherever possible, we involve the children in ‘real’ geographical activities, for example research of a local environmental problem, or use of the Internet to investigate a current issue.

 We recognise the fact that there are children of widely different geographical abilities in all classes, and we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child.  We achieve this by: 

• setting tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty, some children not completing all tasks;
• grouping children by ability in the room, and setting different tasks to each ability group;
• providing resources of different complexity, according to the ability of the child;
• using classroom assistants to support the work of individual children or groups of children.