Geography in Primary School?

Mocho Joe Joe wrote: »

So here's my concern - I have a really bright 11year old, doing grand all round and no concerns regarding schoolwork etc. BUT she is completely clueless when it comes to Geography - countries, capitals, provinces and all that craic. I have never seen her bring home any kind of geography homework after 7 years in school. When i say clueless - i mean she thought the capital of England was France!! I would find it hilarious if it wasn't so shocking. I mean, she'll be off to secondary school in a year and a half, and can just about name the town she lives in 🀣 We're not well travelled, but she's done the usual sun holidays to Spain and Portugal. So i had been kinda blaming that. But still, she can't even name the capital of Ireland. Is this normal nowadays? Because I'm fairly certain this was stuff I knew at that age. There was a clip from love island doing the rounds during the Summer of girls in their 20's being clueless about cities and getting slated online - but then it made me realise maybe this is genuinely not being taught anymore?? She's getting an interactive wall map this Christmas, that's a fact!!

I found the same with my lad now he is only 9 and does very little geography in school and definitely no homework. He got a good few books from amazon last Christmas about flags and countries and facts from those countries. He has a geography book for school but has gotten little use so geography must be or should be taught.
To be honest not knowing the Irish capital at 11 is strange , counties and provinces probably should be taught at home as much as school.

OP IRELANDOPEDIA by Fatti Burke is a great book. There is also an Activity book to go with it.. A sratch off map might be a good idea as she can scratch off places as you visit - might get her interested!
It also really depends on the teacher - geography, history and science are covered under SESE so they maybe don't get the same attention as before??

I've definitely seen an Ireland county jigsaw puzzle somewhere and I remember my cousins having a discover Ireland board game - if they are still around it may be another idea?

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

The type of physical geography you would have done at school, rivers, mountains , lakes etc. isn't the huge portion of the curriculum that it once was, sadly. (Though I don't think anyone will miss tracing paper and those awful plastic templates!) You can view the curriculum document here, but each school sets its own programme within certain parameters .

https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/6e999e7b-556a-4266-9e30-76d98c277436/PSEC03b_Geography_Curriculum.pdf

As an older teacher with 30+ years behind me I lament the fact that that the physical and political features are given little or any importance in the curriculum nowadays. It's all about tea plantations in India or Weather systems ( important in their own way, of course) and though you may find a chapter or two about the features in a text book or the child may have a map workbook to fill in they do not learn them off like children used to in the 70s, 80s and 90s. That's considered old fashioned and to be honest it takes a lot of time . The curriculum for History, Geog and Science is way overloaded. The children dip into themes and topics and are given a flavour of everything in these subject areas. What was once left to the secondary school is now being done in primary but not to the same extent, of course. Younger teachers don't or won't spend time drilling map facts into children. They are genuinely too busy with curriculum overload. Also, children nowadays are simply not used to learning things off by heart ( hence some have huge difficulty with learning maths tables). They don't learn words of songs ( unless they are performing on stage maybe) or poems because it's all printed out for them. Google maps is there when you want to find a city or country and the sat nav will take you anywhere when you start driving. So, many don't see the need to be learning off map facts. But, I'm 100% behind the OP ...it's a disgrace when a 9 or 10yr old doesn't know the basics when it comes to physical and political features. We have thrown out many babies with tubs of bathwater! I have also had complaints from parents too for asking children to learn off map facts. They tell me the children can't learn them off and become over anxious when I produce a map test. This is a consequence of the children not been in the habit of learning off facts especially if the previous teacher didn't require them to do so and also we've all gone a bit soft and don't make the same demands on children regarding homework as we used to back in the day.

So at the minute I am looking at Irish mountains, lakes and rivers with my 4th and 5th class. 6 pages out of a 60-odd page book. I will cover this over the next three weeks, three hours and that's more or less it. The curriculum is absolutely jam-packed, ridiculously so.
The idea of rote learning (rhyming it off) is gone, unfortunately. Tables is really the only bit of rote left and even doing this can often draw complaints.
Old curriculum had flaws but it gave teachers a bit of lee-way to give more attention to ie: Irish mountains, lakes and rivers rather than the tea industry in India.