As a school we map
• Breadth of study - the topics the pupils will study
• Threshold concepts - the big ideas in geography that pupils will explore through every topic (investigate places, investigate patterns and communicate geographically).
• Milestones - the goals that pupils should reach to show they are meeting the expectations of the curriculum.
Milestones are the goals that pupils are aiming for; through developing a strong schema based on knowledge, vocabulary and tasks pupils progress through the milestones.
Within the geography curriculum, we use 7 knowledge categories that enable pupils to identify common themes and make links throughout different geographical concepts. The knowledge categories are: location, physical features, human features, diversity, physical process, human process and techniques.
Disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND are given full access to the geography curriculum. Teachers use a range of strategies to enable all pupils to become successful geographers including:
• Discrete teaching of vocabulary to ensure all pupils access and use geographical terminology
• Pre-teaching where appropriate for example: sharing texts with a pupil prior to the lesson
• Dual coding to help pupils efficiently learn key concepts
• Thinking maps and mind mapping to enable pupils to organise and memorise key knowledge.