Intent

At Co-op Academy Nightingale we are covering the full National Curriculum in Geography. Our pupils will have the opportunity to develop a sense of belonging: To our school, Leeds, Yorkshire and the United Kingdom. We are proud of our location in Harehills, Leeds and want our pupils to feel pride in who they are, what they are and who they represent irrespective of the barriers and challenges of socio-economic local circumstance. The geography curriculum will support this by providing our children with the opportunity to understand the environment around them and be able to compare and contrast this with other locations and places around the world including regions and locations that many of our pupils herald from including Romania. 

Geography is effectively planned and sequenced to maximise children’s knowledge and skills to embed in their long term memory. We will teach children powerful, culturally rich knowledge in a way that ensures they are most likely to remember and apply these skills to the circumstances of their lives. The geography curriculum is successfully adapted to meet the needs of all children by ensuring practical, immersive and hands on teaching that promotes independence and fluency. 

At Co-op Academy Nightingale, our Geography curriculum focuses on four main geographical concepts taken from the National Curriculum that progress year after year:

• Locational Knowledge – our pupils will know and be able to locate key geographical locations of Yorkshire, U.K., Europe and the world. 
• Place Knowledge – our pupils will be to compare and contrast different locations and environments 
• Human and Physical Knowledge  – our pupils will know of key geographical human and physical features and be able to discuss the impact this has on the way we interact with the environment around us
• Skills and Fieldwork Knowledge – Our pupils will be able to use resources and apply specific geographical skills to real-life situations to explore and immerse themselves in geographical understanding

All of our children, no matter when they have joined us, will leave at the end of KS2 with an understanding of these geographical concepts.
 

Implementation

We deliver our geography curriculum through projects and the online software ‘Curriculum Maestro’ from Cornerstones to support our sequential planning and teacher subject knowledge.

Geography is taught through projects from Reception – Year 6 in our school. Through the projects, the curriculum for history, geography, art & design, design & technology and music are delivered to all pupils. Projects can range to a half term in length (6 weeks) to 8-9 weeks depending on the amount of knowledge that must be covered and consolidated before moving onto the next. Every project has a driver subject that will remain the constant focus throughout. In Reception, the projects focus on an area of learning and development from Development Matters. The geography curriculum is taught through ‘Understanding of the World’. The children in Reception develop their geographical  knowledge and skills by focusing on their local environment and the world around them. From Year 1 to Year 6, pupils learn geographical knowledge and skills through driver-led projects. In Key Stage 1, the children study geography by looking at the wider world and knowing the continents and key oceans of the world. They will develop knowledge of the countries that form the United Kingdom and the capital cities within. They will know they are based in Harehills, Leeds Yorkshire. In Key Stage 2 they learn in greater detail about places of the world and study and begin to draw conclusions about places and geographical features for example: land-use patterns in Year 4. 

Throughout all year groups, there is a focus on key vocabulary that is revisited throughout different year groups. This is displayed in the classrooms as well as taught explicitly to all pupils through geography lessons. 
 

Impact

At Co-op Academy Nightingale our children will leave us with an understanding of their geographical belonging to school, Leeds, Yorkshire and the United Kingdom. The sequenced approach to their geographical study will have enabled our children to have the geographical skill and knowledge to take into KS3 and underpin their future learning in Geography. 

Our children will be informed about the impact of changes to climate and how they can play a part in the environment around them including, school, home, the local area and beyond. The Geography curriculum will have informed our children to being able to identify significant locations in the world and to compare, contrast and evaluate different localities in the world. 

Our Geography curriculum is cyclical and revisits the same concepts to ensure that children are able to build upon prior learning and deepen understanding. This also ensures that no matter what point a child joins us, they have the opportunity to develop these skills.