We are Geographers!

As geographers, we aim for our children to leave DCS with:

• An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
• An excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
• An extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• Good fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
• A passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
• The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.

At DCS, we follow the Learning Challenge Curriculum (a cross-curricular question-based approach to learning). This is a knowledge and skills- based curriculum. 

Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage (see document below).

Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each unit which details some key information/ images, key questions and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and are used as a reference document. 

Geography is taught explicitly once a term (3 units per academic year).

Our Curriculum Map documents shows which topic is being taught when.

The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:

• Locational knowledge: Builds own identity and develops their sense of place, develops pupils’ appreciation of distance and scale, helps pupils learn about the orientation of the world and how to navigate.
• Place knowledge: What a place is like and how pupils connect to those places and locations and identify themselves within the world e.g. - connection of location and physical and /or human geography
• Human and physical geography: The interactions between people, places and the environment.
• Geographical skills and fieldwork: Using maps, globes and compasses, along with what you know to explain location, place and human and physical features associated with it. 

Our curriculum allows for essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts, such as scale and place, in Geography. Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning. Our enquiry questions form the basis for our units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. We have designed these questions to be open-ended with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In attempting to answer them, children learn how to collect, interpret and present data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge.

We seek to broaden children’s real-life experiences, both inside and outside the school through access to our outdoor areas, our school forest, educational visits, visitors, exploration and discovery.

Our school is very fortunate to live so close to not only the coast but also being located very near to the Lake District. This enables our children to gain first-hand fieldwork experiences, allowing them to deepen their geographical skills in the local area.

How is Geography assessed at DCS?

We measure the impact of our curriculum through checkpoints using the following methods:

• Checkpoint 1 - At the start of each unit, children record in their books what they already know and what they would like to find out.
• Checkpoint 2 - Review of previous learning at the beginning of each lesson.
• Checkpoint 3 - End of unit quiz of key knowledge. These are recorded in our books.
• Checkpoint 4 – Continuing review of previous learning weeks later to check ‘sticky knowledge’
• Checkpoint 5 – Pupil voice and book study