Primary Insights: Geography
Well hello there and welcome to update #035!
Oxfam defines a global citizen as ‘someone who is aware of and understands the wider world and their place in it. They take an active role in their community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.’ So how do we nurture this in primary schools?
Geography provides endless scope to teach children about many aspects of the world: it's an opportunity to broaden pupils’ horizons. In Primary Huh Tom Brassington shares the Three C's he uses as core threads in the geography curriculum: creation, community, and compassion.
‘The threads are revisited each year:
Creation - we teach physical geography.
Community - we consider how humans interact with their environment & what impact they have.
Compassion - we want pupils to develop empathy and an understanding of their responsibility in the world.
We want children to look at the world and think, how have processes come together physically to create this? How have human actions affected it? What might this look like in the future? It's that lifelong curiosity and fascination; we want children to wonder at this beautiful world.
‘Compassion explores race and identity. Everyone is equal; everyone’s heritage is celebrated. We never want to ‘Children in Need-ify’ places. Accurate understanding of geography is underpinned with historical knowledge to help pupils understand their role as global citizens.
‘By the end of Year 6 pupils will understand the part of the world in which they live. They will also understand and celebrate their family heritage. We also expect children to have developed a broad understanding of how their local pocket sits within the country, the continent, and the world. We think of it as a jigsaw puzzle where pupils assemble the concepts that they’ve learned over time.
‘We want to avoid misconceptions and create an accurate understanding of our world. This is nuanced: while we understand the impact our human footprint has, another person might have a different perspective. At its heart, geography is about empathy, understanding others and our world.
Want to hear more? You can watch the full conversation with Tom on Myatt & Co. (£/free trial)
Until next time
Mary
When you’re ready, you might find these helpful for curriculum and development
Huh Curriculum Leaders Course: Starts 5 June, and it’s the last chance for the live sessions!
Primary and secondary subject networks
And there’s also the popular Primary Curriculum Booster which include live check-ins with me!
Huh Leadership Lobby: a blended, self-paced course with live check-ins, led by me and Andrew Morrish. It is designed for aspiring, new and established leaders.