Geography

In KS1 and KS2, geography is taught as a discrete subject in alternate half terms (Autumn 2, Spring 2 and Summer 2).

Within our geography ‘Units of Work’, composite tasks have been broken down into smaller component tasks to ensure a structured and progressive learning experience, where children are provided with opportunities to develop both their substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge alike within each unit.

To support the deepening of this knowledge and widening of pupils’ schema, children use knowledge organisers to support them in recalling and retaining key information and additionally attend trips/participate in workshops linked to their geography unit of work for that term; this also includes the opportunity for children to engage in geographical fieldwork.

At Sir William Burrough, geography is taught as a blocked subject. This means that the geography unit for that half term is taught every day for one week in the half term; this learning is then revisited and revised through retrieval practice factored into our weekly timetable, allowing our children to benefit from the advantages of spaced learning and interleaving. We believe that blocking subjects provides children with the opportunity to become immersed into a topic and develop deep learning in the subject discipline: more time is spent learning and applying knowledge than transitioning between different subjects within the school day.