Geography

"The study of geography is more than memorising places on map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exist across continents.  And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together."

Barack Obama

Our Geography Lead is Claire Rogers.

Geography Intent

At Dronfield Junior School, we want all our pupils to discover an interest in the world, its environments and places near and far. We want to inspire pupils to be curious and fascinated about the world and different cultures that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge provides the tools and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Pupils will be able to complete practical activities which will help them to be able to show their geographical skills and map work for the use of symbols, grid references, direction, scale etc.

Geography Implementation

At Dronfield Junior School all year groups do a whole term focused on a geography ‘Explore’ question. This planning follows a clearly sequenced and progressive programme of study based on the National Curriculum objectives. Most other areas of the curriculum are linked to this topic questions which ensures that the children get a broad and varied knowledge of the world.

The work is differentiated to ensure that all pupils can access the curriculum. To make geography come alive we try to plan a range of out of school visits, workshops, visitors and artefacts to look at which will create fun, enjoyable, engaging and memorable learning experiences.

Geography Impact

Due to the high quality curriculum, pupils at Dronfield Junior School demonstrate an interest in geography. They can talk confidently about their learning in geography using appropriate and technical vocabulary and can apply their geographical knowledge to deepen their understanding of other areas of the curriculum including: languages, mathematics, science, history, art and design.

Pupils can use a range of geographical resources with increasing confidence including: compasses, maps, globes and grid references to generalize and hypothesize about different geographical locations. Pupils can evaluate a range of sources of information on a location and reflect on their validity and reliability which promotes higher order analytical and creative thinking.

The curriculum challenges pupils to research information and think for themselves, give reasoned answers, work independently, be socially aware of local and global geographical issues, and develop good resilience and attitudes to learning. All pupils are prepared for the next stage in their geography learning.

Geography Endpoints and Progression Map

Map Skills Progression

These are some of the websites we use for planning and teaching geography:

National Geographic Kids: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/teacher-category/geography/

Google Earth: 

https://earth.google.com/web/@0,-0.22809985,0a,22251752.77375655d,35y,0h,0t,0r

School Learning Zone: https://school-learningzone.co.uk/key_stage_two/ks2_geography/ks2_geography.html

BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zbkw2hv