Geography

At Arunside School, our aim is for all pupils to develop a greater understanding of the world, as well as their place in it. When teaching Geography at Arunside, we promote an interest for learning more about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments as well as encouraging our pupils to develop a deep understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive and can be demonstrated through Geographical Enquiry.

At Arunside School, Geography is taught using a variety of enriching learning tools, such as first-hand experiences, using books, maps and digital technology. We provide regular opportunities for children to explore our area and to strengthen geographical skills, such as fieldwork and map reading. We use nearby resources for educational visits that link with current topics to enhance the cultural capital of our pupils, also embedding first-hand learning outside the classroom into our lessons. These include local river (River Arun), Horsham Museum and Horsham Park which give learners a better awareness of local landmarks. We promote a language-rich Geography curriculum in each topic that encourages children to use subject-specific vocabulary. We regularly recap our prior learning to help us make connections between our new learning and what we have learned before.

The children at Arunside School have a good knowledge of their surrounding area, it’s location, and human and physical features within it. This is evident from the regular field trips taken by the children to explore the area. They use these experiences to use geographical language to describe similarities and differences between their locality and other regions. Arunside children have a real sense of curiosity to find out more about their world and the features, cultures and people within it. They show a good awareness of the human and physical features of Geography, considering how these are connected to each other as well as comparing and contrasting these between countries and regions. The children’s Geography work is always celebrated and can be seen on displays around the school.