Our Approach to Geography

Intent

At Buckfastleigh Primary School we want all children to understand their sense of place in the world; where they are provided with opportunities to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world around them.  

As geographers, they will locate where they are in the world and beyond.  

Using our local environment and researching and exploring the wider world, the children will use enquiry and fieldwork to discover human and physical processes and make sense of them.    

There will be opportunities to think about diversity, cultures and sustainability and how our choices can affect the world around us.  

Implementation

At Buckfastleigh Primary School we have a consistent approach through using clear themes, from Opening Worlds and the National Curriculum, that are built on throughout the years, creating a curriculum that is a progression model. Each theme has an enquiry question or statement that the children will work towards through components of knowledge that allow them to make connections and reach informed conclusions. Children will use a range of curated Opening Worlds resources, alongside maps/aerial photos, atlases and exploration of key vocabulary, to secure and gain understanding. 

They will consider how each lesson, and each unit, is built upon from previous knowledge and its place on a knowledge schema which is developed with the children in lessons and on the communal geography display.  

Children will have fieldwork opportunities to ask questions and record in their books. Where appropriate the children will have ‘hands on’ opportunities through visitors and local visits. 

Adaptive teaching strategies are used for children with SEND to support them in accessing the curriculum; for example, using Widgit to make the vocabulary and unit content accessible, use of stem sentences and cloze procedures where appropriate. 

In Years 1, 2 and 6, children will alternate between geography and history, per half term. This means, in geography, children will learn through three carefully constructed, knowledge-rich enquiry questions across the course of the year. 

Opening Worlds

The programme meets and substantially exceeds the demand of the National Curriculum for history and geography and is compatible with our locally agreed syllabi in RE. The programme is characterised by strong vertical sequencing within subjects (so that pupils gain security in a rich, broad vocabulary through systematic introduction, sustained practice and deliberate revisiting) and intricate horizontal and diagonal connections, thus creating a curriculum whose effects are far greater than the sum of its parts. 

As the programme builds on prior learning, Years 3, 4 and 5 will start with the Y3 Curriculum in the 2023-24 Academic year. 

For more information on Opening Worlds, please click here.