Geography…The Albourne Way

 

INTENT

Everything we do at Albourne Church of England School is underpinned by our vision, The Albourne Way – living life to the full. Children in our school will achieve highly because our expectations for pupil outcomes are ambitious.

‘Geography… The Albourne Way’ envisions a dynamic geography curriculum that prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century while promoting a deep understanding of the interconnectedness between people and their environments. Our curriculum is grounded in the belief that geography is not just about maps and locations, but is a lens through which students can explore the complexities of the world around them. Our curriculum raises curiosity about diverse landscapes, cultures, and natural phenomena through hands-on activities and field trips.

 

Our goal is to inspire lifelong curiosity, create informed global citizens, and equip students for success in an interconnected world.

 

IMPLEMENTATION

 

We lead an enquiry-lead approach to our history curriculum as our pupils not only build their substantive knowledge and understanding, but become increasingly adept at disciplinary thinking, conceptual understanding and the use of specialised vocabulary and technical terms. In order to do this, as a school we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high-quality history curriculum. This is implemented through:

• reflecting the guidance of and matches with the scope and ambition of the national curriculum.

• providing pupils with the appropriate opportunities to build their substantive and disciplinary knowledge. This will encourage children to master and apply subject skills and techniques and acquire the specialist language and technical terms to communicate their understanding effectively.

•  Creating a MTP of each enquiry, which defines what the pupils will know, understand and be able to do. This is clearly identifiable in the progressive and increasingly challenging objectives.

• Sequencing enquiries to ensure that pupils can build on prior knowledge and understanding as they tackle more complex and demanding enquiries throughout their education.

• Learning activities are very varied to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to demonstrate their strengths.

• Our curriculum for EYFS – Year 6 provision is made for regular and high quality visits which we recognise as a core element of our pupils’ statutory entitlement in geography. These visits provide opportunities to develop and consolidate skills and concepts introduced in the classroom and allow pupils to extend their understanding through investigating geography in the ‘real world.’  

• When assessing our pupils, evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources to inform the process including interaction with pupils during discussions and related questioning, day to day observations, presentation and communication of data collected during visits and writing in different genres. We do not make summative judgements about individual pieces of pupil work, but rather use continuous formative assessments to build an emerging picture of what the pupil knows and understands about our overall enquiry into the subject.

 

IMPACT

 

Our curriculum, ‘Geography... The Albourne Way’ helps to prepare our pupils for life in the 21st century with all of its currently unknown possibilities. Our pupils will develop the skills to act as young geographers in our current world. As geographers they will acquire the skills to make links and connections between the natural world and human activity, how it changes and the impact of physical and human geography upon one another. Our curriculum prepares our pupils for opportunities and challenges that will arise during their lifetime – personal, local, national and global.