Geography
“The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.”
Barack Obama
Subject Coordinator: Mrs Stacey Goldstraw-Davis
Subject Link Governor:
Vision and INtent
Geography at Cheadle Primary School is committed to providing pupils a foundation to better understand the wider world around them. We aim to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to better understand our rapidly changing world and face the ever growing challenges that we face in our societies both locally and globally.
Geography Coordinator
My name is Stacey Goldstraw-Davis and I am the Geography co-ordinator. I am enjoying supporting the teachers and children with their Geography topics and believe we have an exciting and varied range of activities and themes. We use the local area to bring geography to life and have many trips embedded within the curriculum.
I am a keen gardener myself and love being outdoors. We are lucky at CPS to have such a huge field and lots of garden areas. We have introduced planters onto the playgrounds to help encourage wildlife and to increase our knowledge of plants.
The eco-warriors across the school are keen environmentalists who help to promote care for our local environment and wider world. We are just at the beginning of our Forest School journey but already children have been out enjoying many activities that connect us with nature and our planet. Over the coming year we will be developing the Forest School areas in the school to bring more opportunities for CPS to get out and explore.
Curriculum and implementation
We teach geography using a cross-curricular approach and take the opportunity to consolidate learning and skills within a variety of subject areas. We offer a progressive and dynamic curriculum that responds to the ever-changing world and can be accessed by all children through a differentiated learning approach.
Teaching in geography aims to inspire and stimulate children’s learning and geographical enquiry. Therefore, a range of teaching styles will be used throughout each topic e.g. drama- hot-seating, role-play. Children will also have the opportunity to work independently and co-operatively with others in pairs and groups. Children will be given opportunity to practise geographical skills using a range of methods and resources, such as different maps, atlases, digital technologies, sketch maps, plans and graphs, therefore making the subject real and meaningful. Geography will also be taught through other areas of the curriculum, where appropriate, to ensure geography becomes an integral part of our themed approach to teaching and learning.
Whenever possible we take advantage of being situated in a historical part of the Midlands and encourage children to participate in regular visits to the local area as well as using excellent transport links to the potteries where children have access to a number of educational sites, including parks and museums. At CPS, our philosophy is that Cheadle and the Moorlands, and all it has to offer geographically and historically, is our playground.
Core Knowledge and skills
Please click on the links below to see our subject progression documents for Geography.
assessment
Teachers will use a wide range of assessment opportunities in geography:
Observation, discussion, questioning and work in topic books. Teachers will use the most appropriate forms of assessment depending on the topic and activities as discussed in year group planning sessions.
Short-term assessments: These are used to adjust future teaching. This will be recorded on teacher’s weekly plans.
Medium-term assessments: These will take place at the end of every topic. The teacher will assess the children’s learning based on their own medium term plans.
The outcomes of which will be added to O track.
Overall achievement in geography will be discussed at parent’s evening and in annual reports.
cultural capital and enrichment
In geography, Cultural Capital can be gained in many ways;
The study of differing cultures and backgrounds both internationally and locally.
Opportunity to read maps and learn orienteering skills
Knowledge of local and international landmarks -where they are and why they have been erected.
Creating a link to nature whether that is the trees in our local area or biomes in South America.
Encouraging a curiosity about the world.
ODDIZZI
Oddizzi is an e-learning resource and community that immerses children in the real world. We enable children – wherever they are – to ‘break out’ of their own world and join a global community of like-minded children.
Children using Oddizzi can view the world through the eyes of people who are passionate about the places they are sharing.
Our growing body of carefully managed content builds a solid understanding of the people, places and cultures of the world. It is widely used in schools for geography and social studies, global citizenship topic work and to build research skills.
The site is used in many of our topics within school but has content related to all geography topics across the primary ages.
What our pupils say
Year 5 loved their Mountains topic and worked in teams to research and present information.
“It was very fun. I liked putting together the slideshow on Google Classroom. I actually really enjoyed this learning.”
“It was exciting, and we could present our knowledge the way we wanted to.”
useful websites
Mapping
An introduction for key stage 2 on how maps work and how to interpret them. It includes these 8 sections: starting mapping, symbols, compasses and directions, grid references, understanding scale, measuring distance, relief and contour lines and compass bearings.
http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/index.html
Local street maps including a ‘find my nearest’ function, which can be used to locate features e.g. schools, list them and link them to a map.
Search for local street maps by postcode, OS grid reference, place name or street name. Maps are extendable in eight compass directions.
Online mapping site which includes eye level 'Streetview'
Maps resized to show population sizes, income, etc.
Distant locations
Very child-friendly site for understanding development issues.
BBC Teach
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcvEcrsF_9zKxYSbFe_DMWK_VO2phjBjL
Topmarks KS1
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=12&AgeGroup=2
KS1 Geography BBC Bitesize
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zcdqxnb
BBC-Geography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/geography.shtml
National Geographic
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/teacher-category/geography/
KS2 Geography BBC Bitesize
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zbkw2hv
The Biomes of the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X9fTPSbQ0U
Up to date weather forecasts
Activities, games and stories about Barnaby Bear's travels for KS1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/barnabybear
Newsround world current events
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/default.stm
Newsround UK current events
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk
KS2 geography support materials
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/E/essentials/geography/qmenu.shtml
Environmental themes
The children’s section has many useful facts, activities and animations and includes sections on: air, energy, land, climate change, people and lifestyles, resources and waste, water and wildlife.