Killingholme Primary School

Our Intent:

At Killingholme Primary, we promote a positive attitude to learning (based on our school vision of Partnerships + Potential + Performance = Success), encouraging our students to aspire to achieve their full potential by providing rich, motivational, purposeful and inspiring learning.

At Killingholme Primary School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it.

The geography curriculum at Killingholme enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas, which can be and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Bacon Garth and also to their further education and beyond.

Our Implementation:

In order to foster children’s curiosity about the world, interest and creativity, we are enthusiastic about Geography and encourage children to explore and ask questions. At Killingholme Primary, Geography is taught through a skills based curriculum. Key Stage One work on a one year cycle, Key Stage Two work on a two year cycle – this is due to mixed year group classes. This long term plan is reviewed and adapted as an ongoing monitoring process, by the subject lead. When planning, teachers ensure they interweave the skills and units to ensure progress is made and skills are achieved.

It is important at Killingholme Primary that children develop the skills of a geographer and we achieve this by fully immersing them in all areas of the subject. The local area is fully utilised to achieve desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom. School trips and fieldwork are provided to give first-hand experiences, which enhance children's understanding of the world beyond their locality.

At the beginning of each unit, children create a concept map, where they are able to write down any knowledge they currently know about the topic ahead. They then add and build upon this each week at the end of a lesson in green pen. This creates a working document, which the children have ownership of, to show the knowledge which has been learnt throughout the term. At the end of the unit, children are given an exit task to measure the progress. In addition to this, at the beginning of each lesson, a retrieval practise activity is given to the children about the previous weeks' learning to bring the knowledge back to the forefront. This is known to the children as ‘It’s Nothing New’. We use assessment for learning to ensure all lessons are relevant and will help to plan for next steps.

Child speak skills mats can be found in the front of foundation subject books and these ensure children not only know what they are learning, but also the skills they are learning to be a Geographer. 

Subject co-ordinators are given regular time to ensure resources are kept up to date, to monitor subjects across the school, create action plans and provide subject feedback to SLT as appropriate. Subject leads once a term will also generate a standards report, based on the teacher's assessment of students over the term. This will inform their next steps in their subject.

The Impact:

By the time pupils leave Killingholme Primary School our curriculum ensures that they have an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, alongside an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated. Children will have an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary and be fluent in geographical enquiry and harbour the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques. Children will have the ability to reach clear conclusions and develop reasoned arguments to explain findings and have significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity as shown in interpretations and representations of subject matter. Have highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques, whilst owning a passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there. Finally children will have the ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.