Our Approach: 

In our school, the geography curriculum is brought to life as children step into the shoes of young explorers. They embark on exciting journeys to uncover answers to important questions about our world. Through hands-on experiences, they develop crucial skills such as observation, comparison, logical thinking, and problem-solving. Our approach immerses them in activities that demonstrate the methods and motivations of geographers as they investigate their own environment, and landscapes, oceans, and communities from around the world. 

Teaching Tools:

What makes geography so exciting? 

Purposeful fieldwork in geography involves hands-on, experiential learning activities that are tailored to their developmental stage and understanding. Here are some examples:

• Nature walks, exploring trees, plants, flowers, insects and other wildlife. Children can learn about basic concepts like plants, animals, and seasons through direct observation.
• Miniature explorations: Setting up small exploration stations in the classroom or outdoor play area where children can investigate different materials, textures, and natural elements like sand, soil, rocks, and water. This helps them develop sensory awareness and spatial understanding.
• Map adventures: Introducing and using maps  that represent familiar places like the classroom, school grounds and local area, identifying key features. Using these maps, children learn basic navigation skills and spatial relationships as well as physical and human features. 
• Community visits: Organizing short visits to nearby places of interest, such as a local library,  community hall, and high street. 
• Weather observations: Setting up a weather station in the classroom or outdoors where children can observe and record daily weather conditions such as temperature, rainfall, and wind direction. This helps them understand basic weather patterns and develop early scientific enquiry skills.

The geography curriculum intertwines with various other subjects, primarily science. Hence, our geography lessons are strategically scheduled to maximise these fantastic cross-curricular learning synergies. 

 

Supporting all children:

At Hassocks, we believe our curriculum meets the needs of all our pupils. All students take part in multisensory activities which root learning in tangible ways.  Our curriculum can be tailored to ensure all children can achieve, and have opportunities to share their understanding with others. 

We adapt learning in a range of ways to ensure all children are successful. 

Our teaching staff use a guidance document created specifically for Geography which offers a range of adaptations which can readily be made to support individual needs.  If you would like to know a little more about this, please click on our Making Geography Accessible link. 

Assessment:

We use observational assessment of pupils and capture their individual responses-which reflect their geographical understanding and ability to use subject-specific vocabulary effectively. Observations happen throughout the day; through talk and play both inside and out.  

Children's learning journeys are tracked through tapestry or in their learning journals - we use these to guide our 'remind me' conversations, where children can tell us about their learning whilst reflecting and building links through this process.   

Pupils books track the process of answering the 'big questions' and are also used to guide 'remind me' conversations where the children talk to us about their learning. 

Above and Beyond: 

Sustainability, global responsibility and an understanding of cultural diversity are key to our curriculum offer.  

Each year-group has Planet Protector missions that help our school reduce waste and recycle more. By taking part, the children are promoting care for the environment and learning about their wider collective global responsibility.  

Diversity: 

Geography enables our children to find out about life for people all over the globe.   Our curriculum invites children to explore and compare their locality to others around the world. They consider geographical features, cultures and ways of life.