Curriculum 2000 - updates
Primary Overview
Key Stage 1
This is the same as current requirements.
There is more detail but no real changes to current expectations.
Key Stage 2
There is a clear reduction. This is a positive move and includes:
The TWO places:
A locality in the UK (could be your wider locality)
A locality in a country that is less economically developed.
The THREE themes:
Water and its effects on the landscape - rivers or coasts.
How settlements differ and change.
An environmental issue.
NB. There is no need to make an explicit study of the weather. It can, of course, be part of your study of your place, your chosen contrasting locality or the study of rivers. Since both rivers and weather are elements of the water cycle and naturally fit together and need to be covered in a topic on Water, your weather study has not really disappeared.
This raised profile of enquiry re-emphasises the way in which geography should be taught. In an enquiry approach pupils set/ ask their own questions to guide their learning; they engage in practical activity in the classroom and through fieldwork in the school grounds and beyond.
Level 2 and 3 – these are essentially the same expectations, just presented in more words, but for level 3 includes the requirement to ....‘show their knowledge, skills and understanding in studies at a local scale’ and to ....‘recognise how people seek to improve and sustain environments.
Level 4 – here you will find more or less the same words with the additional expectation that pupils can ....‘explain their own views and the views that other people hold about an environmental change’.
Level 5 – again, more or less the same words with the additional expectation that pupils can ....‘recognise how people try to manage environments sustainably’.
All the additional guidance given in curriculum 2000 i.e. three principles of inclusion; the use of language and ICT across the curriculum is most welcome but does not go far enough. I will be working on guidance to support and take this further.
Changing plans for Primary Geography
Refer to the QCA documentation – it is good. Use it to guide your revision of the geography curriculum. However, do not just adopt what is already in print. Use the range of topics to personalise a scheme of work that will be appropriate for you and your pupils, in your school setting. Better to use the QCA document rather than starting from a blank page.
Health warning: there are several QCA topics that are not appropriate i.e. the mountains environment, village settlers at KS2 and going to the seaside at KS1 – unless you have a good range of resources to support what has to be delivered.
If you are happy with your current topics.
You have begun to adapt and use the QCA documentation.
What you have works.
Do not change anything for the sake of it.
Currently, timings in geography, if you adopt the QCA guidelines, will cause problems if you are not very specific. The range they suggest is much too broad and should be ignored. Plan your topics and calculate the most realistic timings. More guidance on this will follow later.
Remember, QCA have not been very helpful by giving a wide range of timings.
The remaining pages on this web site simply list the current (1995) statutory recommendations, with the new Geography 2000 curriculum listed on the right.
These statements are word for word from the respective documents so that you can immediately see where the changes have been made. You will notice where the few changes have been made. This simply reinforces my interpretation of Curriculum 2000 outlined above.
You will have opened the files as a Word document. This means you can save the text to your MyWork folder and incorporate the information into any future changes you make to your Geography Policy, Guidelines and/ or Scheme of Work.
Further updates will follow and supersede this information as I hear or read more.