Geography

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement 

Intent 

At the British Section, SHAPE International school, we aim to teach a high-quality geography education which inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  We intend that they develop a contextual knowledge of the location of SHAPE and Belgium as well as globally significant places. We aim for them to understand the key physical processes that shape the planet and that they become competent in a range of geographical skills. 

Implementation 

Our humanities curriculum is carefully designed so that the geography and history units complement one another, with links in knowledge being fostered wherever possible. We have also strived to create a curriculum which is relevant to the local area. For example, in KS1, an exploration of the school’s grounds and surrounding areas is undertaken in close proximity to learning about the history of the school and its unique location in SHAPE. The children learn about the geography of the British Isles before they look at the Great Fire of London in order to provide geographical context and then move onto learning about the human and physical geography of the region of Mons and Hainaut before learning about the historical significance of the time van Gogh spent in this region.  

In KS2, the study of the United Kingdom adds context to the children’s learning in history on the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Following that, the pupils compare and contrast the coast of Kent with that of Belgium and the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico; this gives the children the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the geographical processes which shaped the two coastlines which they are most likely to have experienced. The study of the Yucatan peninsula provides a geographical context to their learning on the Mayan civilisation in history.  

Wherever possible, we use the Oddizzi online resource to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. We are developing a series of field trips which will give our pupils the opportunity to deepen their understanding of geographical processes by collecting, analysing and communicating with a range of data. It is our aim that geography field work will be undertaken by every year group in the school. 

In every geography lesson taught, next steps are incorporated into the planning; these provide an opportunity for all children to deepen their thinking by considering challenging questions relating to the lesson content as well as developing their understanding of links between topics and subjects. 

Impact 

By the time children leave SHAPE, geography lessons at our school will have given them a rich understanding of the geography of the local area, of the United Kingdom and of the regions of the civilisations studied in history. All children will have experienced a range of fieldwork and will have learnt to interpret and to communicate with a range of sources of geographical information.