Our school is situated on the outskirts of Belfast within the Borough of Castlereagh. The school’s location within Belvoir and adjacent to the forest park provides a natural context for geographical enquiry, with opportunities for first-hand investigation of the built and natural environment.

This document is a statement of the aims, objectives and strategies for the teaching and learning of geography at our school.

Geography is about people and the places they live in, and about the influences that interact between them. It helps pupils make sense of their surroundings and the wider world.

This view of Geography is reflected in the aims and objectives we set for learning in Geography. These aims are in harmony with and aligned to the general school aims.

Our aims are to:

~ make learning in Geography an enjoyable experience for the children

and the teachers;

~ develop the pupils’ knowledge, understanding and identity with the local area;

 

~ encourage them to develop a sense of ownership as caring and responsible custodians for the place in which they live;

 

~ progressively extend their knowledge, understanding and awareness to other people and their places near and far;

 

~ help pupils to appreciate the richness and cultural diversity of the global village, by fostering a sense of empathy;

 

~ have a definite progression and continuity from year to year in the acquisition of geographical skills, concepts, knowledge and understanding;

 

~ contribute to personal, social and spiritual education, within an ethical

framework, by developing attitudes such as co-operation,

independence, interdependence, tolerance, a sense of curiosity and enquiry,

~ asking questions about people, places and the environment in which they live;

~ observing, collecting, recording, collating, evaluating and presenting field work information and information from other sources, using ICT as appropriate.

 

Key questions should include:

Where is this place?

What do we already know about this place?

How would I get there?

What does this place look like?

Do many people live there and why?

What would it be like to live there?

How is this place similar to or different from our home area?

What are the main reasons for the similarities and differences?

What do we like/don’t like about this place?

How are people’s activities and ways of life influenced by the character of the place and its location?

What important links does it have with other places?

Is this place changing and improving or not?

What are the views of the people who live there regarding the changes?

Have our views of the place changed in the light of our studies?

MAP SKILLS

 

Key Stage 1:

 

~ explore a map of the world to identify land and sea, their own country and places studied in other topics,

CONCEPTS such as:

~ location, direction, representation, perspective, scale;

~ similarity and difference;

~ interdependence and intradependence;

~ time and space;

~ pattern;

~ cause and consequence;

~ conflict, negotiation, consensus and reconciliation;

~ development and conservation;

~ globalisation;

~ sustainability.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING of:

~ what places are like in relation to weather and climate;

~ how people have used places in relation to-

~ homes and buildings

~ types of settlements

~ jobs and services

~ transport and communications;

 ~ the environment;

 ~ a variety of places, including local, regional, national and international, including developed and developing countries.

~ to focus on aspects of conflict as and when these present themselves naturally through the programme being studied, the study of other subjects, or as they arise naturally.

We base our planning and teaching for key stages one and two on the (revised) programme of study for geography.

These schemes form the basis of our half termly plans.

A variety of learning approaches will be used. As and when appropriate children will be learning as a whole class, together in smaller groups, or as individuals.

In Key Stage 1, geography will be included in broad topics where it is integrated naturally with other subjects. In P4 these broad topics will have a stronger geographical focus.

Structured play is seen as an integral part of the learning experience.

In Key Stage 2 the children will experience Geography as a discreet subject with appropriate development of learning opportunities for cross-curricular work.

Strategies will be developed to cater for different levels of ability within each year group; work will be matched to the ability of the child. Different levels of teacher expectation will also be evident.

The programme of study for geography provides many opportunities for development of the Educational Themes:

~ EMU (Issues and studies of other peoples);

~ CH (Study of own place);

~ IT (Data handling and simulations);

~ HE (Study of subjects such as water, food, and aspects of the environment).

The children will have learning opportunities for first hand exploration of the environment. Initially this will be within the school and its grounds, but later will involve exploration outside the school in the locality and further afield.

We will use a wide range of learning resources to provide a variety of information about the people and places being studied and which are suitable for the ages and abilities of the pupils.

These include:

~ children’s experiences of their own local environments,

~ the classrooms, the school and its grounds,

~ visitors to the school,

~ the use of story, photographs, textbooks, library

reference materials, school broadcasts, and a variety of

maps and atlases,

~ visits to local and other sites,

~ links with schools in other places,

~ ICT including Internet technology

~ video-conferencing and e-mailing other schools

Homework will be given as appropriate to the particular programme being studied and in accordance with the school policy on homework. This may take the form of finding out information, research, finishing or extending work commenced in class.

Assessment will be on a continuous monitoring basis involving

~ informal techniques such as teacher observation, listening

to conversations and answering questions asked about tasks,

~ formal techniques where appropriate.

Keeping portfolios of the children’s work in accordance with the school’s assessment policy.

We recognise the need to review our policy in the light of practice or statutory changes, and if problems are identified appropriate remedial action will be taken.

~ location, which may be expressed through positional language, distance, addresses, co-ordinates and grid references;

 

~ direction, which may be expressed through the use of compass points;

 

~ representation, which is about using colours and symbols to represent objects or features, and explaining these in a key;

 

~ perspective, which is about the plan or ‘bird’s eye’ view;

~ scale, which may be discussed through language such as smaller than/bigger than with younger children, and maps at a variety of scales with the older children;

 

~ similarity and difference, which involves observation of the similarities of places as well as differences;

~ interdependence, which refers to the interrelationships that exist between humans and their environment and also between communities;

 

~ time, which can be observed by means of the natural world e.g. the passing seasons;

 

~ pattern, which refers to an appreciation that there is order and pattern in the environment e.g. layout of classroom, climate patterns;

 

~ cause and consequence, which refers to the environmental and social effects of human influences on the earth;

 

~ conflict and consensus, which implies that there is often conflict over the use of the environment and that all points of view should be taken account of before a decision is made;

 

~ development and conservation, which implies that along with growth and advancement comes a responsibility to preserve our environment.