Geography
At Holland House school we inspire children’s curiosity and interest to explore the world that we live in and ignite a love of learning. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and begin to understand their place in it. We seek to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people and to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Our curriculum is progressive, ensuring the children’s learning builds on their previous knowledge and takes into account the learning they have undertaken in previous topics. We adapt our curriculum to incorporate the events of the day, ensuring the content is relevant and significant to our children. We plan and implement a cycle of lessons, carefully planning for progression, depth of knowledge and a clear desired outcome. Children are encouraged to ask questions, investigate and explore the natural and human world, which helps them to develop their understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We have developed long and medium term plans that ensure the Key Stage One National Curriculum objectives are met. There are opportunities for the children to learn the knowledge or skill and then review and build on this throughout the key stage. Subject rich vocabulary is built up overtime allowing children to embed and communicate effectively. Each topic is started with a ‘WOW’ event, allowing the children to have an experience of the events we are learning about. At the end of the topics, a show case allows us to share our learning with the school and wider community. Extra-curricular trips or events are planned to develop our children’s cultural capital.
Children at Holland House infant school will achieve National Curriculum expectations at the end of Key Stage One. Whole school progression maps of skills and knowledge are used to plan for depth and breadth. Assessment statements are clearly stated on the medium term plans for teachers to ensure appropriate content is taught. Each topic sets clear objectives and outcomes for pupils in terms of knowledge and skill acquisition. Impact is measured through key questioning throughout the lesson, knowledge retrieval and skill progression. Our children use the skills gained through geography to understand the ever-changing world around them and their place in it.