Skip to content ↓

Humanities

History

Our History Subject Leaders are: Mrs Robinson and Miss Sutton

Intent

At Disley Primary School, our intent is that our teaching of history will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim for it to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past and to know more about the past. We aim to enable children to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Through the teaching of history, we endeavour to teach children to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Our history curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our history curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the skills and knowledge to be taught in a sequentially coherent way in order to build on the key skills, which are taught during each key stage.

Implementation

A maximum of four topics are taught across the year to ensure that children achieve depth in their learning. Statutory topics from the National Curriculum are allocated chronologically so that children have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. Children are also taught world history, such as learning about ancient civilisations of Maya and Greece. Further themes have been selected to ensure that children will learn and make progression in key skills for history within the context of our school.

Topics are allocated on a 2-year rolling programme for each key stage, and key skills are incorporated into each topic to ensure that all key skills are covered to enable children to make progression in these areas as they move up through the school - this is documented on a curriculum overview.

Knowledge organisers are provided for each child at the beginning of each topic to support them in learning new facts and vocabulary. Where possible, cross-curricular links will be made, for example, texts relating to the theme being studied may be selected for Guided Reading sessions and also for writing in English. School trips and visitors will also enhance the learning experience. 

Impact

Our History Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. At the end of each topic there will be a ‘quiz’ to ascertain whether the children have gathered and retained new knowledge. Assessment will be made through ‘quiz’ results and through a scrutiny of each child’s work in their topic and English books

Geography

Our Geography Subject Leader is: Miss Cliff

Intent

At Disley, our Geography work forms part of our termly topics from Year 1 to Year 6. We aim 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. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.         

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

  1. develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
  2. understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
  3. are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
  • collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
  • interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
  • communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Implementation

Geography is sometimes used as a topic focus for the term as a key topic (as is History) but we also aim to ensure that it is integrated into other areas of the curriculum and the basic skills are taught throughout the year through cross-curricular work.

Topics are allocated on a 2-year rolling programme for each key stage, and key skills are incorporated into each topic to ensure that all key skills are covered to enable children to make progression in these areas as they move up through the school - this is documented on a curriculum overview.

Knowledge organisers are provided for each child at the beginning of each topic to support them in learning new facts and vocabulary. Where possible, cross-curricular links will be made, for example, texts relating to the theme being studied may be selected for Guided Reading sessions and also for writing in English. School trips and visitors will also enhance the learning experience. 

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge

  • name and locate the world’s 7 continents and 5 oceans
  • name, locate and identify characteristics of the 4 countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas

Place knowledge

  • understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country

Human and physical geography

  • identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
  • use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:
    • key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather
    • key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop

Geographical skills and fieldwork

  • use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
  • use simple compass directions (north, south, east and west) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far, left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map
  • use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
  • use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment
Key stage 2

Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge

  • locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
  • name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
  • identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)

Place knowledge

  • understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region in North or South America

Human and physical geography

  • describe and understand key aspects of:
    • physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
    • human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

Geographical skills and fieldwork

  • use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
  • use the 8 points of a compass, 4- and 6-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
  • use fieldwork to observe, measure record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies

Impact

Our Geography Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. At the end of each topic there will be a ‘quiz’ to ascertain whether the children have gathered and retained new knowledge. Assessment will be made through ‘quiz’ results and through a scrutiny of each child’s work in their topic and English books.

Disley Primary School

Dane Bank Drive, Disley, Stockport SK12 2BD