Intent

At Maltby Manor Academy, we deliver a unique and bespoke curriculum to suit the needs of individual learners. We believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. 

The geography curriculum at Maltby Manor enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can be used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops and understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.  

We seek 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 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. As a Rights Respecting school, we intend for each lesson to be engaging and enriching to develop the children into Global Citizens. This is one of the core learning characteristics as a school and we want to promote this with children in Geography, but also ensure this value is instilled within the wider curriculum. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Maltby Manor and also to their further education and beyond.

Implementation

Geography lessons are planned using the National Curriculum and progression of skills documents, where a subject does not link with the inquiry it is taught discretely.

In EYFS, Geography presents itself within the ‘Understanding the World’ ELG. Children are expected to observe the natural world around them and be able to talk about similarities and differences of their immediate environment.

Geography in KS1 includes learning about the children’s locality and school in Y1 and moves on to studying the United Kingdom as a whole and the 7 continents of the world in Y2 and into Y3.  In KS2 Geography introduces the children to Europe in Y4 and the wider world in Y5 and Y6.

Fieldwork is an important aspect of Geography and children are expected to progress from using their senses in EYFS to comparing human and physical features in KS2.  By the end of Y6, our children are expected to use fieldwork skills to carry out a focus in-depth study in the local area.

The teaching of Geography is supported by the progression of skills document which is year group specific including concepts such as location and place from Nursery – Year 6. Key geographical vocabulary is on the progression document linking to the skills being taught.  As many children have not experienced life outside of Maltby, the National Curriculum is further supported through carefully researched and chosen residential and school visits such as Y3 visit to the Mining Museum, fieldwork in Bamburgh in Y5 and studying the locality of Maltby and its land use in multiple year groups. We aim, particularly with Geography, to widen the children’s understanding of the wider world around them and increase their cultural capital.  Each year group creates their own knowledge mat to support the teaching of their geographical learning journey; helping the children to understand and embed vital subject specific vocabulary and knowledge.