Intent
At Starcross Primary School we want all pupils, regardless of need or barrier, to develop a passion for learning about the world around them, from where they live and the context of the local area, through to sustainability, and how we need to protect our planet for generations to come.
The Earth is our most important resource, and we endeavour to instil in our pupils a fascination and curiosity about how places are similar and different; to develop a deepening knowledge of this wonderful diversity within both our human and physical environments and the interdependence that exists.
Geography is the connection between resources and processes, so our aim is that the children learn about these interactions, and how landscapes and environments are formed and changed over time.
Through our geography curriculum we strive to develop our pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills by exploring a wide range of places in different ways. We value opportunities to learn outside the classroom, and our pupils take part in Forest School; visits to cities like London, Plymouth and Exeter and local fieldwork studies, such as the estuary and local coastline, where they learn about our immediate surroundings. We also take advantage of living in close proximity to Dartmoor National Park where children go for residentials allowing them to experience and explore this natural landscape in depth. Our children are taught how to ask questions, explore the world around them and draw conclusions from what they have learned.
Starcross pupils are encouraged to consider their rights and responsibilities and embrace all opportunities to learn about the world around them and their place within it.
Through a rich use of geographical vocabulary, and building from prior knowledge within a progressive curriculum, we aim to develop geographers who will be motivated, communicative and eager to find out more, both throughout their secondary education and beyond.
Our geography curriculum aims to:
- Enable children to gain knowledge and understanding about places in the world building up from their locality to the wider world. This includes both terrestrial and marine environments.
- To provide learning opportunities that enthuse, excite and engage the children to foster a curiosity about the world and the people in it.
- Increase children’s knowledge of other cultures that differ to our own. This teaches respect, tolerance and understanding of what it means to be a citizen in a multi-cultural society.
- Learn the skill of using maps and atlases to locate various places as well as how to draw and interpret their own maps.
- Enable children to know and understand environmental issues at a local, regional and global level.
- To develop an understanding of sustainability and what it means to be a ‘global citizen.’
- To develop skills such as asking questions, using enquiry or fieldwork to answer geographical questions, problem solving, completing investigations, recording data as results and drawing conclusions.