Geography
Statement of Intent
To inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Geography Lead:
Mrs Collins
Geography is the study of places and people. It helps children to make sense of their world and to understand their place within it. It is a priority for us to instill a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that will stay with the children for the rest of their lives. We aim to to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Our curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout the children's time at Forest Hall and also to their further education and beyond. This ensures that different kinds of knowledge is built on over time, to support memory and help pupils identify and cement key concepts. Our topics are cross curricular and we want children to make links between their Geography learning to other relevant areas such as History, Maths and Science.
This year our 'Postcard Project' has begun, where we have invited any friends and family of Forest Hall P.S to send us a postcard from a location in the UK or Worldwide telling us all about it. This may include information about the tourism, culture, weather, festivals or landmarks (or anything else!). We hope this will continue to promote excitement about new and different places across the globe, particularly in a time when lots of us have been unable to travel. We hope this project will also encourage the children to ask questions, observe differences and similarities, to think critically and promote a love of learning about the world. We will be 'tweeting' with news of postcards sent from across the globe. Our first postcard received in September 2021 was from Perth, Australia!
We encourage the children to be real life (and life-long) geographers by giving them the skills which will stay with them into adulthood. We use globes, atlases and OS Maps to develop mapping skills by helping children ask questions, identify places, locate places and describe locations. We help children notice patterns, think spatially and develop their geographical vocabulary. We also aim to provide rich contexts for debate, critical thinking and enquiry.
We are embracing digital mapping skills using 'Digi-maps', where we have digital access to current modern day and historic maps, and detailed aerial imagery to better support the teaching and learning in geography. We use maps within our topics to show that places have changed over time and how their features (human or physical) came about. We use maps to support the acquisition of new vocabulary, learn about places at a range of scales, and explain patterns and processes.
At Forest Hall, we believe that fieldwork is an essential component of geography education as it enables pupils to better understand the ‘messiness’ of ‘geographical reality’, develop subject knowledge, and gain a range of skills that are difficult to develop in the classroom alone. While we have not been able to leave the school grounds recently due to COVID safeguarding measures, we are looking forward to trips within the local area and further afield in this coming year!