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Geography and history

Geography

In geography, our curriculum vision is to develop the whole child – the head, the heart and the hand. We immerse the children in our locality, connecting different strands of their life to meaningful human and physical processes.

From this foundation, we widen the scope to include national and international fields of study. We aim to inspire a curiosity of the world and secure a body of knowledge about the location of places, features and processes. ​This knowledge builds sequentially as our pupils move through our school. We encourage the children to question the new learning and compare and contrast with what they already know.

Underpinned by our vision statement of ‘Believe and Achieve’, we ensure the children develop a true sense of their place in the world and their potential influence and impact on it.  We give opportunities to develop their fieldwork and mapping skills, to investigate and record data and use a range of digital and traditional resources to embed, progress and enrich their understanding of geography.

History

In history, our children are taught key historical concepts.  They acquire knowledge to provide them with a firm understanding of the history of Great Britain and how that relates to our locality.  They also learn about history of the wider world, including ancient civilisations.  Children are taught to make comparisons between ‘then’ and ‘now’ to provide them with an understanding of how we have arrived in the modern day; we believe that acquiring knowledge about the past gives us a better understanding of the present.  We encourage the children to develop research skills together with an investigative approach towards history whereby they evaluate evidence and draw conclusions which they have to substantiate.

Wherever possible, visits to historical places of interest are arranged to support their learning, e.g. The RAF Museum, Hendon in Year 6, where they are given first hand experiences that enhance their understanding of history.  We also arrange history days where children are immersed into their history topic, using artefacts, drama and practical activities to engage them and to instil an understanding of past events, e.g. The Great Fire of London day in Year 2.

Knowledge Organisers can be found on Google Classroom and will be posted as we teach each unit of work.