Intent
At Larwood School, our geography curriculum is ambitious and inclusive, giving every child the knowledge and cultural understanding they need for life and future learning.
We follow the Chris Quigley Essentials Curriculum, aligned with the National Curriculum (2014). Our topics are broad, balanced and carefully adapted to help children build their geographical knowledge, skills and concepts step by step.
Implementation
o maintain high standards in geography, we follow a progressive curriculum that helps children build on and recall prior knowledge over time. Geography is a key part of one of the three yearly topics and also features within the other two. All teaching focuses on the National Curriculum’s knowledge and skills.
The curriculum leader regularly reviews planning, pupil discussions, and work samples to check teachers’ subject knowledge. They support staff who need help and adapt the curriculum as needed. They also provide resources and ideas to ease planning and improve engagement.
Our geography curriculum is based on the Chris Quigley framework, which outlines knowledge and skills for each milestone. Teachers use a sequencing document to plan lessons that build understanding step by step, including transferable skills like reading fluency and graph work.
Geography is challenging but accessible for all, including SEN and gifted pupils. Lessons are differentiated to match individual needs – stretching gifted learners with investigations and enquiry questions, while providing extra support and scaffolding for those who need it.
Learning happens both inside and outside the classroom. Each class organises trips and fieldwork linked to their topics to spark curiosity. Teachers also plan fun, hands- on activities away from desks. Every topic begins with a ‘Stunning Start’ to engage the children and ends with a ‘Fantastic Finish’ to showcase their learning.
Impact
The geography curriculum at Larwood is of a high quality, well planned and demonstrates progression. The impact of this is measured through the following methods: assessing children’s understanding of topic vocabulary through pupil conferencing with the subject lead, images and videos of the children’s practical learning, moderation of children’s work within their books – ‘book scrutinises, staff meetings with an opportunity to scrutinise and discuss children’s progress and outcomes, marking of written work in books and annual reporting of standards across the geography curriculum. Children will leave Larwood School with a good understanding of the geography of the United Kingdom alongside the continents and countries of the world. They will also be able to talk with confidence about physical and human geography; their locality compared to others around the world; use both online and paper maps effectively; and sustainability including the climate crisis. This will give them a good foundation for their secondary learning alongside their understanding of the world around them and how people live across our planet.
