Curriculum Lead: Rebekah Fry
Being a Geographer
Intent:
At Bridge Learning Campus we are passionate about developing curious geographers who have a broad knowledge base to draw from and are equipped with the investigative skills needed to find out more. Our geography curriculum has been planned to empower children with knowledge about and respect for, diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Our ambition is that every child leaves Bridge Learning Campus with a love of learning, the ability to confidently articulate their understanding of a wide range of geographical topics and able to apply geographical skills that they have learnt.
Implementation:
At Bridge Learning Campus, our humanities curriculum is underpinned by Opening Worlds. This is a knowledge-rich curriculum designed to ensure that there is progression and full coverage of knowledge, concepts and skills which children can expand and build upon throughout their time at Bridge Learning Campus.
Children make links across subjects and across year groups and can rely on prior knowledge to support future concepts. This knowledge is consistently revisited and retrieved, which ensures all children build their schema of knowledge. The opening world’s teaching approach includes ten practical techniques which ensures high-leverage teaching and the use of high-quality vocabulary giving the children opportunities to expand and develop their oracy skills. Children not only learn geographical facts (substantive knowledge) but also develop their thinking, questioning and geographical skills to enhance their disciplinary knowledge. To ensure geographical learning is inspiring, we immerse children in practical enquiries, which take them on a learning journey, supported by the development of a working wall and culminating in a final challenge, where the children graft towards to answer a synoptic task.
Impact:
We know that we have created successful Geographers if children dare to:
- Read a variety of maps, interpret geographical data and locate key physical and human features.
- Explain how key dynamic Earth processes (water cycle, volcanoes etc) occur.
- Describe an increasingly wider world using geographical terms: climate, topography, population etc.
- Explain Bristol’s links to the wider world and describe the similarities and differences between Bristol and regions of the world significant to the region as a result of trade and migration.
How we build the geography curriculum:
- Links to prior learning
- Learning Journeys
- Knowledge Organisers
- Explicit vocabulary teaching – EYFS and Y1 bucket time, learning walls, definition sheets
- Oracy – sentence stems , talk opportunities
- Experiences
- Retrieval quizzes
Progression Documents
- Opening Worlds Skills Guide – Progression in Geographical Skills
- Opening Worlds Geography Fieldwork Guide
- BLC Progression
- National Curriculum Programmes of Study
Opening Worlds Curriculum
Year 3
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Year 4
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Year 5
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Year 6
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
 |  |  |  |  | |
Knowledge Organisers
- Year 2 – How will we get around in the future?
- Year 2 – How are schools the same?
- Year 2 – What is home?
- Year 3 – What is underneath our feet?
- Year 4 – Where does our water come from?
- Year 5 – Where is our twin?
- Year 6 – Where does our food really come from?
Geography Enquiry Displays
