‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.’ (National Curriculum)

At St Andrew’s, we believe that every child is entitled to a curriculum that is creative, captivating and challenging and equips them for today and tomorrow. Our Curriculum Statement (available at https://www.st-andrews.notts.sch.uk/curriculum/) details this intent and outlines our principles and aims which are underpinned by our strong Christian values.

Our children are enthusiastic learners and love to find out more about the world in which they live. We understand the importance that Geography plays in this and in enabling our pupils to become knowledgeable citizens, who care about the future of the world, and aim to deliver a curriculum which develops their geographical knowledge, fieldwork skills and encourages them to ‘push out into the deep’ in both their learning and their personal development.

Our aims are reflected in our Curriculum Statement and our desire to deliver an outstanding and inclusive Geography curriculum to all our pupils:

• To provide a creative, captivating and challenging Geography curriculum.
• To use geographical vocabulary that is accurate and appropriate and progresses and develops from EYFS to Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2.
• To spark pupils’ curiosity and develop their understanding about the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features, how they are linked and how they change over time.
• To enhance learning experiences and deepen their understanding through fieldwork skills including the collection, analysing and communication of data.
• To equip pupils with the knowledge and skills to be able to interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs.
• To communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
• To have the opportunity to learn in a collaborative environment which fosters investigating and enquiry based learning.
• To develop pupils’ contextual knowledge of location, physical and human characteristics.
• To think critically about human impact on the world and to reflect on the importance of global changes and the connections that exist between people and places,

As a school, we have chosen to deliver our Geography curriculum through a project based approach which will enable our children to develop and improve their key geographical skills, inlcuding map work, and knowledge  as well as providing them with engaging opportunites to learn more about the world around them. We are further enhancing our children’s knowledge with ‘Sticky Knowledge Friday’ and the use of Flashbacks across our curriculum. This combination allows our staff to deliver captivating lessons, while ensuring coverage of the National Curriculum, and enables our pupils to reach their full potential. 

Sustainability Week - 21st March 2022

Following some inspiring writing by our children about the impact of plastic pollution, they presented their ideas to Mr Snelling in our Whole School Worship and asked him to consider making our school more sustainable. Much to their delight, Mr Snelling agreed and so in the week of 21st March 2022 we held a whole school Sustainability Week.

During this week, we learnt about what sustainability is and the small things that we can all do which will make a big difference. This led to each class choosing their own Class Pledge for things that they will do going forwards including:

• Turning off taps
• Switching off lights and electronics
• No Power Hours
• Using paper resources more sustainably
• Picking up litter

Every child also planted their own lettuce seeds to enjoy in a few weeks’ time, with children then learning about a variety of issues linked to sustainability. 

Children in The Gruffalos and The Ladybirds also planted bean stalks and learnt about ways to look after the world, they even explained why this was important!  

The Moles, Toads and Badgers in Key Stage 1 looked at recycling and ways that they could do this at home and in school and also learnt about the importance of hedgerows as an animal habitat.  

In Key Stage 2, children in the Fantastic Foxes, Charlies Champions and Marvellous Matildas discovered more about ways to protect the world and developed an understanding of where food comes from and how this can impact sustainability, inlcuding learning about carbon footprints.

The Beavers, Fauns and Maugrims looked at natural resources, where they are found, how they can be managed and why this relationship between humans and the environment is so important. Thanks to the weather, the fieldwork we completed this week was even more enjoyable! Children used maps and compasses to navigate their way around the school grounds before using online maps to measure distances between countries.

We had an amazing week and our children are so passionate about looking after God’s world, you might find yourself being encouraged to turn off the lights or switch things off more at home too!