Intent

At Laddingford, we believe that Geography should stimulate an interest in and a sense of wonder about places. It gives children the language to understand, present, analyse and communicate information and make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. The study of geography explains not just where places are, but how people and their environments are interconnected and we believe this allows our children to understand their own impact in the world at all scales, from the personal to the global.

The concepts of Place, Space, Scale, Sustainability, Interconnection, Change and Environment form the fundamental principles of geography teaching at Laddingford. More information and an example unit of work showing how these are built into our curriculum is available on our website here.

Implementation

In Key Stage One, Geography is taught through a two-year rolling programme of content, and in Key Stage Two a four-year rolling programme of content. This has been written and developed collaboratively by the teachers and is reviewed and adapted annually to ensure progression. This format allows all children in a Key Stage to be learning about the same topic at the same time, whilst also ensuring full coverage of the requirements of the National Curriculum. It creates a unique situation where children from separate ends of the school can teach each other things because of the different angles or areas of a subject they have covered. 

SEND and Vulnerable Pupils

 As a school, we use a range of teaching strategies to allow all children to access the curriculum. We use the mainstream core standards to develop strategies, interventions and resources that can help support our children. Some examples used in Geography are:

• Teaching of key vocabulary
• Review points within the lesson
• Providing alternative methods of recording
• Writing frames/adapted tasks if appropriate
• Providing visual support

Impact

By the time children leave Laddingford, they will have the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

They will be able to express well-balanced opinions based on their acquired knowledge and understanding about current issues in society and the environment and in line with our curriculum intent, be able to understand their environmental impact and have the tools to be able to engage in social action.