The National Curriculum forms the core of our teaching in Geography. Aims and objectives have been analysed, broken down and distributed to year groups and ‘topics’. The ‘topic’ of focus is referred to as our ‘Context for Learning’. This ensures that the National Curriculum objectives are covered multiple times from Year 1 to Year 6.

Building on National Curriculum objectives, each ‘Context for Learning’ is introduced by the use of a philosophical, overarching, open question. This provides the children with an understanding of why it is important and relevant to be learning about the subject matters covered. Each session is guided through more focused questions that the children investigate, discuss and research. 

Using the knowledge gained during sessions, children then reflect on the session questions and at the end of a ‘Context for Learning’ topic, they use the sum of their knowledge to reflect on and answer the broader philosophical question. By encouraging critical thinking skills, children are able to use and query sources of information, consider different points of view and experiences and develop a deeper understanding of how places are linked through human experiences.