Markington CE Primary and Nursery School

At Markington Primary School we believe that the skills of geographical enquiry, alongside a knowledge and understanding of different cultures, people and places, provides children with a strong sense of selfidentity, self-esteem and an empathy and understanding for people throughout the world. Through engaging lessons teaching we teach children about ‘being a geographer’ and enable them to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas. We seek to inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which will remain with children for the rest of their lives. Our curriculum promotes the importance of this for their future, and it begins in the Early Years. Here, within the provision areas and through explicit teaching, children learn about their local environment and the wider world, building their knowledge progressively through a carefully constructed curriculum which enables children to develop a deeper understanding of people and places around the world. Alongside this, children build the geographical skills for reading maps/ atlases/globes and learn to use computer software to enhance their learning. Class texts support and enhance geographical learning and children’s SMSC, as they learn about life in other places, and contrast this with their own, providing opportunites for children to develop the abilty to celebrate difference and diversity, through rooted knowledge. Teachers plan meaningful revisits to embed learning, and use cross-curricular links to help children make connections between events, people and places. Responding to events in the news, locally, nationally and globally, enables teachers use their professional knowledge to strengthen children’s understanding and deepen their learning, by making links between people, places and events.

Through our teaching of Geography we aim to:

• provide opportunities for children to investigate geographical issues using wide-ranging resources.
• explicitly teach the skills of enquiry and interpretation of information
• provide opportunities for children to investigate place in a local, national and international context
• provide opportunities for children to investigate environmental change and sustainable development
• Provide opportunities for children to investigate patterns and processes
• To foster a love of writing and a recognition of its value.
• To develop a wide vocabulary.
• To express their ideas, emotions and views, clearly, through written and spoken language.

Geography Policy - click here

First we looked at our chosen Lake District mountain, focusing on the contours. Next we made a contour model. After we had a structure, we built on this with modrock. The next stage was to make the mountain look realistic. We then labelled the mountain features on our mountain. Our model also shows the water cycle over our mountain.