Geography at Harlyn

Intent

At Harlyn Primary School, we aim to provide the children with opportunities to develop their skills in Geography, and to widen their knowledge of their country and the wider world.

The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable. The curriculum is designed to ensure that teaching equips pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

We intend for our children to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.

Implementation

Geography is taught through topic work, which is linked to the National Curriculum and supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. We alternate our Geography and History topics ensuring that our children receive a well-rounded teaching of the humanities subjects throughout the year. At times, we take the opportunity to create links between the two subjects to help solidify the learning taking place.

The children begin by looking at their local area, using their existing knowledge of Pinner and Northwood, and building on this by using a simple map to locate landmarks. This skill is taken further in later years to include comparisons of areas of the United Kingdom with contrasting countries, and to focus on case studies of countries including Africa and India. The units are designed to enable the children to develop their knowledge of location and their understanding of human and physical geography, by looking at their own locality as well as settlements in other parts of the world. The children will use a range of geographical skills, including their use of map grids and references and their ability to measure and record geographical data. 

Cross curricular outcomes in geography are specifically planned for and these are indicated on the whole school Geography Knowledge and Skills Progression Map.  The Geography provision is also well resourced and specific resources are mapped to specific year groups and topics to support effective teaching and learning. 

Impact

As children progress through the school, they will develop an appreciation and understanding of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. Children will be able to use a range of meaningful geographical vocabulary and have the ability to gain the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it.

We expect the impact of our teaching to be that children meet age related expectations. These can be seen in the progression document below.