Aims & Purpose

Each subject leader regularly reviews the purpose and aims for their subjects.  These are based upon the National Curriculum statements, developed by a range of educational and subject-specific experts.  These statements lay out the aims of each subject at Dorney School.

Geography

Geography is essentially about understanding the world we live in.  At Dorney, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Our pupils are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. The geography curriculum at Dorney enables pupils to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas, which can be used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.

At Dorney, the Geography curriculum is supported by a clear progression of skills and knowledge. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. It is important that our pupils develop the skills of a geographer by fully immersing them in all strands of the subject. The local area is utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first hand experiences, which enhance children’s understanding of the world beyond their locality.

Teaching must equip our pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As our pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and changed over time.

The curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
• are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Curriculum Overviews

Our curriculum has been mapped to ensure that there is clear progression across the school. Subject leaders regularly review the topics taught in each year group to ensure that pupils are taught the right content at the right time.