Intent: Developing children’s knowledge of the relationships between the human and physical worlds so that they can take responsible actions, understanding the global and local impact they will have on their futures.
The Hillside Geography Curriculum is underpinned by CUSP and follows a clear process focussing on:
Substantive concepts - The big ideas, and the golden threads. These include place, space, scale, interdependence, physical and human processes, environmental impact, sustainable development, cultural awareness and cultural diversity.
Substantive knowledge - Geographical subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary linked to content.
Disciplinary knowledge - How to think as a geographer.
Geographical analysis - Applying the knowledge of a geographer through selecting, organising and integrating knowledge through reasoning to make sense of the world.
Pupils in EYFS learn about the environment and the world around them, starting with self and their locality, ensuring they understand their place in the world. They build on this knowledge through exploring maps and globes, making cultural links and developing their experience of the environment around them. This substantive knowledge is used to remember and position the locations of continents and oceans with more sophisticated knowledge as they move into KS1 and then into KS2.
The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of both retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practise tasks. High volume and deliberate practise are essential for pupils to remember and retrieve substantive knowledge and use their disciplinary knowledge to explain and articulate what they know. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with places, spaces, scale, people, culture and processes.
“I love that we are learning about the Earth because I am on the Earth.”
Year 1 pupil
