Curriculum Intent

At Bitterne Manor Primary School, our Geography curriculum helps children develop an understanding of the world and their place within it. Pupils learn about diverse places, people, resources, and both natural and human environments, gaining insight into the Earth’s key physical and human processes while fostering a sense of awe and wonder about the world.

From Early Years and Key Stage 1, children explore their local area using geographical language and enquiry, helping them understand their identity, heritage, and what makes their community unique. As they progress through Key Stage 2, pupils deepen their knowledge of the wider world, study climate and physical processes, and confidently discuss and debate global issues.

We aim to develop strong geographical knowledge, enquiry skills, map-reading abilities, and data analysis skills, enabling pupils to communicate their understanding in a variety of ways. Through learning both inside and outside the classroom, we hope to inspire a lifelong love of geography and a respectful, responsible attitude towards their local area and the wider world.

Curriculum Implementation

Geography at Bitterne Manor Primary school is taught in blocks across the year and forms the basis of the topics followed by each year group. There are schemes of work specific to each topic which teachers are able to follow to inform their lesson planning. This enables the geography-based topics to be covered in depth, allowing for greater understanding.

Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each blocked topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group, across the school. At the beginning of the topic, children are given the opportunity to discuss what they already know or can remember from previous year groups or topics already covered in class. They are also able to convey what they would like to find out, bringing in those key questioning and enquiry skills. This ensures that different starting points are identified and that lessons are relevant, as teachers take into account the different abilities that our geographers bring to the topic.

We provide enrichment opportunities throughout the year to promote outdoors learning, through visits around our local area and educational visits to other locations.

Curriculum Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning within class discussions.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Marking of written work in books.