Abbey Court Community Special School provides concise summaries of student work in geography. Ayomi worked hard to identify different leaves in his environment. Students in year 6 went on a field trip to a garden center to practice using public transportation. Older students conducted a survey of local shops and shared their findings with other classes. Throughout their education, students engage in hands-on learning about both local and global geography through activities, field trips, use of technology, and cultural experiences.

1. Abbey Court Community Special School. PGQM Round 9 (Pilot Scheme)

2. As part of a topic on Towns, Christopher, a year 6 pupil was able to establish which features you might find in a rural area and which you might find in an Urban area. 1a

3. When learning about transport, this pupil was able to actively enquire about the different vehicles that pass outside the school. They were able to independently identify the type of vehicle and then mark down on their work, the amount of vehicles they saw. Back in class, the pupils were able to discuss which vehicles they saw most of and in turn learnt more about their surrounding area. 1a

4. This standard annotation sheet used to evidence all pupils work shows the work that Ayomi has done when learning about his environment. The teacher has annotated the pictures and described the work that Ayomi has done as part of his work and then this is placed in his pupil progress file. Ayomi worked hard on finding different leaves in his environment and his finished work is on the following page. 1a

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9. We use a software programme called ‘Progress Tracker’, developed exclusively for our school to track pupils attainment levels in each subject throughout the school year. The programme gives staff access to a number of different graphs and tables of numbers that helps us to assess attainment and plan progression of each individual child. This picture shows a small portion of the programme but just on this page it is clear to see the gender of the pupils, their age, their level of need and their level of achievement in geography so far. This makes it easy to track pupils and study different cohorts when monitoring progression. 1b

10. In KS1 fieldwork, active enquiry and educational visits tend to focus on skills learnt in school and the process of transferring them into areas that they are familiar with such as the school grounds or the local pet shop for example. 1c

11. Here a pupil is using the sensory door signs in order to find their way around the school. These signs are all around the school along with objects of reference associated with each room which helps children of all abilities to find their way around school and recognise the area that they are in. 1c

12. 1c As pupils progress through the school, their experiences of fieldwork and active enquiry also progress. Here our Year 6 class are venturing out on the bus to a garden centre. This is a very new skill for some of these pupils as using public transport might not be something that they do often.

13. Not all of our fieldwork opportunities rely heavily on experiences. We also work hard on active enquiry. Recently Class 3 headed to the local shops to complete a survey on the range of shops in the area. They then took their finding back to school to share with other classes and to ask what other shops people would like to be added to the area. 1c

14. ICT is also an invaluable resource for our geography lessons and it is used regularly to enhance the teaching and learning of the subject. Here class 1 are using the plasma screen to work with the story of ‘Handas Surprise’ when learning about other cultures, especially focusing on the fruits found in Africa. 1c

15. As well as ICT being a valuable teaching tool, it is also beneficial for the pupils to use it in order to be responsible for their own learning. For example, these pictures were taken by a year 6 pupil to record the habitats of some local wildlife when learning about the area local to them 1c

16. As well as pupils learning about local geography, they also like to learn about global geography. These pictures of Class 7 show them learning about some aspects of the Chinese culture. The class had immense fun dressing up in traditional clothes and sampling tea with the help of a member of staff who had also got into the spirit of dressing up! 1d

17. 1d As well as learning about ourselves and other cultures around the world, our pupils also take great pride in looking after our planet for the future. The pupils take part in planting flowers and other plants on our environmental garden and take part in the upkeep of the garden and they also actively recycle wherever possible. These recycling bins are placed in the corridor for easy access and to act as a reminder that we should do our bit for the future of the planet.

18. Cross curricular links are vital within geography as this allows learning to be reinforced in a number of different contexts and skills to be rehearsed in a range of meaningful situations. This display was put up by the whole school to show the cross curricular links associated with geography and fieldwork specifically. 1f

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