St Gregory's School is a 1.5 form entry school and as such operates with mixed-age classes. Year 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 are taught together and the curriculum therefore runs in 'Curriculum Cycles' that recognise that children will be in the same phase for 2 years, rather than one. Mixed Year Group progression is therefore a consideration for our implementation.

The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:

• Locational knowledge

• Place knowledge

• Human and physical geography

• Geographical skills and fieldwork

We aim to have a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each teaching cycle. 

Geographical key concepts are woven across all units rather than being taught discretely as seen in the Progression of key geographical concepts. Our curriculum is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity to promote knowledge retention and build on their previous learning. Locational knowledge, in particular, will be reviewed in each unit to coincide with our belief that this will consolidate children’s understanding of key concepts such as scale and place.

Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning. Our enquiry questions form the basis for our Key stage 1 and 2 units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. We have designed these questions to be open-ended with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. In attempting to answer them, children learn how to collect, interpret and represent data using geographical methodologies and make informed decisions by applying their geographical knowledge. Each unit contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible.

We teach Fieldwork through an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National curriculum. This ensures children will learn how to decide on an area of enquiry, plan to measure data using a range of methods, capture the data and present it to a range of appropriate stakeholders in various formats. Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods.

 Lessons incorporate various teaching strategies from independent tasks to paired and group work, including practical hands-on, computer-based and collaborative tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. 

Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary. Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to deliver a highly effective and robust Geography curriculum and so the school subscribe to resources that support teachers to develop subject knowledge and support CPD.