Geography
At Riverside Primary School, we aim to create great geographers. Geography will be taught with the School’s creative ethos in mind, providing a knowledge-rich curriculum for children to develop their curiosity about the world and its people.
At Riverside we use the Oddizzi scheme of work. Oddizzi is an e-learning resource and community that immerses children in the real world. We enable children – wherever they are – to ‘break out’ of their own world and join a global community of like-minded children.
Children using Oddizzi can view the world through the eyes of people who are passionate about the places they are sharing.
Through practical and engaging activities our aim is to help children to understand where they come from, the world around them and develop their locational and place knowledge. Human and physical geography and geographical skills including field work equip them with the cultural capital required to deal with real life geographical situations. Geography topics take a local, national and international focus providing children with a wider understanding of the world around them. Sustainability is a widely-used concept in geographical education and is central to teaching about the environment and its future. Sustainability in Geography terms means that a process, resource or state can be maintained at a certain level for as long as is needed.
The Geography curriculum is carefully planned to ensure progression across the school. Current learning is linked to previous learning by making sure key knowledge and vocabulary is embedded with cross-curricular links identified across multiple subjects - providing a more contextual learning.
The National Curriculum is the basis for planning and teaching in geography and is implemented through a creative curriculum . The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for children to develop an ‘Understanding of the World’ through broad exploration of the following aspects; People and Communities, The World and Technology.
It all starts in EYFS where children learn to develop an understanding of similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They gain an ability to discuss the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They create strong links and embed an understanding of the features of their local environment both natural and manmade.
The Acorns incorporate cultural differences into their religious celebrations, for example Chinese New Year. The children also use topics and trips such as Chester Zoo, to learn about the natural habitats of a range of animals. Resources are available to access through continuous provision to support child-led learning opportunities about the world around them.
The Otters visit Liverpool to expand on their knowledge of their local area. Learning is also focused on extending children’s geographical vocabulary. Children further develop their geographical vocabulary, they develop the skills and understanding to use words such as ‘deciduous’.
In Seedlings, children learn the basic words for features of their local environment such as beach, forest and sand.