How learning is sequenced
Our curriculum is organised so children can always draw on prior knowledge whilst learning about increasingly complex ideas. We have a strong focus on positional and directional language in EYFS and our numerous local area studies in Reception and Key Stage 1 provide a solid foundation for the place knowledge and fieldwork skills required in Key Stage 2.
In Years 3 & 4, children can apply their locational and place knowledge to new and more varied environments. Human and physical geography progresses into learning about land use, economic activity, changes to environments over time and the impact these have on local populations. Children travel further to carry out fieldwork – to the River Mersey and the city centre – trying more advanced fieldwork techniques and analysing data with more rigour. Children learn about deforestation and climate change and we instil a sense that they can have an impact and pursue meaningful action within and beyond school.
Our curriculum should have equipped children with solid foundations by this point and children should be ready to learn about a range of more complex phenomena across every continent. Through case studies of migration from Guatemala, the building and impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Three Gorges Dam and exacerbated coastal erosion in Sri Lanka, we emphasise the wider impacts of local changes and stress the interconnectivity of all of our key concepts (outlined below). In Upper Key Stage 2, fieldwork opportunities require children to use more advanced techniques and equipment and taking on the role of geographers in our work around Manchester City Council’s local development plan.
All of our objectives tie in to the same four Key Concepts - 'Locational Knowledge', 'Place Knowledge', 'Environmental, Human & Physical Geography' and 'Geographical Skills and Fieldwork'. These are revisited and built upon each year.
By continually contextualising learning within these concepts, our aim is to support our pupils in building increasingly strong schemas to support the organisation, linking and retrieval of knowledge.
