The Geography Impact- How we know what has been learnt

 
 
Our curriculum needs to meet the needs of our children, including our disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, so we spend time looking at and evaluating how children are learning. This is achieved through talking to children, looking at their work, observing their learning experiences and analysing data and progress by year group, class, groups and individuals. 
 

Assessment of geography at New Close is a multi- facetted approach. We need to recognise the limits of placing any summative judgement against the children’s knowledge of geography because the validity of this data is relatively low. We equally need to be wary of purely looking at the outcomes from within a lesson, and judge the performance of children, rather than what has been committed to long-term memory. Because key geographical knowledge is unlikely to be revisited, the vast majority of our efforts within assessment should be towards responsive teaching, in order that misconceptions and are addressed at the point they are made. However we can use our ‘Need to Know’ facts as a barometer to assess long-term learning.

Formative Assessment / Responsive Teaching: 

·        Verbal responses from pupils within the lesson

         Written outcomes from the pupils’ work

         Retrieval practice at the start of each lesson

         Summative Assessment

         Multiple choice quizzes after a period of time

         Mind-maps after a period of time

         Comparison of work with exemplification

         Pupil interviews about topics covered

         Teacher judgement against historical skills progression

 

It is important that when assessing our impact, we refer back to the aims of both the National Curriculum and of our own curriculum. Whilst the assessment of knowledge and skills are addressed above, it is important we also look at how our teaching has led to achieve the school aims and the by the time pupils leave year 6 they have:

 

  • A wider variety of skills linked to geographical knowledge and understanding,
  • A richer vocabulary which will enable to articulate their understanding of taught concepts.
  • High aspirations, which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life.
  • A curiosity for the world around them which will enable them to be inquisitive and question new concepts which come their way