St. Mary's C.E. Primary School, Washington

Intent: In Geography at St Mary’s we teach an understanding of places and environments. Children learn about their local area and compare their life in this area with that in other regions in the United Kingdom and in the rest of the world. By developing a growing knowledge and understanding of human geography, children gain an appreciation of life in other cultures and in so doing, develop a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural country.

Implementation: At St Mary’s, Children’s geographical knowledge, skills and development will be focussed on the vastness of the world, encouraging an appreciation and fascination.  Our children will communicate geographical information, ideas and understanding in a variety of ways, including drawing maps, writing at increasing length and presenting through speaking and the use of ICT. They will be encouraged to think about the effect of humans actions on the environment. Current geographical developments and issues will be discussed in the classroom, where appropriate.

Our geography curriculum is planned over a two year cycle, ensuring that children learn the relevant knowledge and skills in progressive steps as well as the appropriate geographical vocabulary.

Impact: Our children will develop the geographical knowledge and skills to enable them to explore, navigate and understand the world around them.

Intent: We aim to develop enthusiastic historians at St. Mary’s by stimulating interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We want to foster in our children an interest in the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer.

Implementation: We use the National Curriculum for history as the basis for our curriculum planning, and have related this to the local context. Our school teaches History through a two year cycle of topics which cover a range of themes and eras.  At St Mary’s children will progressively learn about significant events and people in British, European and Non-European History, developing a sense of chronology, historical vocabulary and an appreciation of how things have changed over time. They will understand the present in the context of the past, be introduced to historical enquiry and investigation, through studying historical evidence and will develop the skills of asking questions, analysing, interpreting, evaluating, presenting and problem solving.

   Impact: Children at St Mary’s will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more.  As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the           decisions they make in their lives in the future.