Intent 

Geography at Ringwood Junior School is about capturing children’s natural curiosity about the people, places and processes around them. Geography lessons are enquiry based allowing children to be inquisitive and to find out about their local environment and the wider world. Field work is a key part of the Geography curriculum as it allows children to get up close and hands on with Geography. Pupils find out about Ringwood and the surrounding areas building on their knowledge of moving around the local area. Pupils study areas in The New Forest across the school as a locally significant place. They learn about what makes the New Forest special and how it should be cared for. Pupils learn how their local area links with other places around the world and how their lives are impacted by global human and physical processes. Pupils use a range of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and develop their use of maps and progressively across each year group to be able to explore places. Pupils learn about physical processes and how these impact on the landscape around them and around the world.

Implementation

Geography lessons happen weekly in blocks of 6 – 8 weeks in each year group. Lessons aim to answer big questions such as ‘How do rivers shape the landscape?’ and ‘How is Southampton connected to places around the world?’. In lessons children are active geographers using visual information and collected data to answer questions about people, places and processes. Children get out to carry out fieldwork regularly. Children visit a coastal location and interview members of the public about how they use the coastline. They undertake a human impact walk around The New Forest collecting photographic evidence about ways in which humans have had positive and negative impacts on the forest. They also use the school ground to search for ways in which water is used and wasted and even to find a suitable spot for a bug hotel using a list of criteria.

Impact

As children move through the school they will build their knowledge of places from near to far. They will develop an understanding of how landscapes and climates differ around the world and how this has an impact on the lives of people living there. They will also challenge stereotypes that some places around the world are all the same. They will develop an understanding that commonalities exist in people’s lives despite differing locations around the world. They will understand that the Earth is ever changing and how we can physical processes studied have contributed to this. They will remain curious about the world and build a set of tools to be able to answer questions that they have about the people, places and processes that they can see.