The Intention of the Geography curriculum at Bitterley School is to inspire pupils to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world that we live in, its people and environments; in other words, to think like a geographer. We want pupils to develop the confidence to question and observe places, measure and record necessary data in various ways, and analyse and present their findings. Through our carefully planned curriculum, we aim to build an awareness of how Geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. We hope to encourage pupils to become resourceful, active citizens who will have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.

Building and expanding children’s personal experiences of geography is recognised in research as highlyinfluential when children are learning geography. Many researchers note that the concept of building from what is known or familiar to pupils gives them security in their understanding and so helps them commit knowledge to their long-term memory. It is also important that children gain knowledge about the world beyond their own experience, for example to appreciate how people live in other parts of the world. However, children must still be able to relate this to what they already know if they are to build a strong schema (a cognitive structure that connects knowledge previously learned). This helps them to build, connect and remember different aspects of the curriculum in the long term.

To support this our curriculum was chosen to build on pupils’ prior learning and to re-visit the content, which supports pupils in developing strong schemata. It organises and repeats substantive and disciplinary knowledge in ways that show pupils how each component fits together and how each composite idea fits with others. Through this, children gain a secure grasp of well-connected pieces of knowledge and consequently know more, remember more and are able to do more, thus making good progress in the subject.

We recognised that building pupils’ knowledge of locations, or ‘where’s where’, helps them build theirown identity and sense of place and allows them to develop an appreciation of distance and scale.
This is built upon as the children progress through the curriculum so that they gain the knowledge they need to develop an increasingly complex understanding of place. This helps them make a connection between location and geographical processes and personal experience.

To ensure this is rationale is followed we have chosen to follow the Kapow Geography scheme of work which encourages:

• A strong focus on developing both geographical skills and knowledge.

• Critical thinking, with the ability to ask perceptive questions and explain and analyse evidence.

• The development of fieldwork skills across each year group.

• A deep interest and knowledge of pupils’ locality and how it differs from other areas of the world.

A growing understanding of geographical terms and vocabulary.

Our Geography curriculum enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets in the National curriculum. The aims also align with those in the National curriculum.