Geography Intent

Our geography education will inspire in pupils a curiosity about the world around them and their place in it. Teaching will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. They will grow in understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human features. As pupils progress through the school, their growing knowledge about the world will provoke thought and questions, encouraging children to discover answers through exploration and research. Through immersive topics, we hope our children will be motivated to share an understanding of the current and contemporary issues in our society and environment. 
 

Curriculum Narrative

The geography projects are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s geographical knowledge, skills and subject disciplines.

Geographical locations are not specified in the national curriculum, so they have been chosen to provide a broad and diverse understanding of the world. 

Where there are opportunities for making meaningful connections with other projects, geography projects are sequenced accordingly. For example, children revisit the geography of settlements in the history project School Days after studying types of settlements in the geography project Bright Lights, Big City.

Geography projects are taught in the autumn and spring terms, with opportunities for schools to revisit less secure concepts in the summer term.

Little Acorns
In Cycle A, children learn about communities and conduct fieldwork to explore the school environment. They learn to look after their immediate environment and are introduced to maps as pictorial representations of places and journeys. They make sketches of familiar routes and journeys and are introduced to positional language. Children explore seasonal changes throughout the year and how these affect their local environment and the weather. They also observe the differences between daytime and nighttime. They explore countries with cold climates and learn how habitats and wildlife differ worldwide. They explore the theme of celebration and begin to learn how life in their country differs from countries around the world. They are introduced to globes, world maps and digital maps, and use these to explore the location of places, including the United kingdom and places with contrasting environments to where they live. They build on their knowledge of climates around the world and find out how the weather, animals and plants are different. They learn about the importance of recycling and making their classroom environmentally friendly.  

In Cycle B, children conduct fieldwork to find out about their immediate and local environment. They explore and create sketch maps to represent real and imaginary journeys and use digital maps to explore aerial photographs of their local area. They explore the physical features of their local environment and use world maps and globes to identify the United Kingdom and make comparisons between locations. They look at photographs and maps to find out how their local environment has changed over time. Children are introduced to positional language. They carry out fieldwork to explore the plants and animals in their local environment. They build on their knowledge of worldwide locations and compare and contrast unfamiliar environments to their own. They locate seas and oceans using maps and globes and find out what lives at the seaside. Throughout the year, children observe seasonal change and the effect of changing weather on their local environment. 

Class 1
In Class 1, each autumn term begins with essential skills and knowledge projects (Our Wonderful World in Cycle A and Let’s Explore the World in Cycle B). Teaching these projects in Years 1 and 2 enables children to be introduced to, or revisit, critical geographical concepts, aspects, skills and knowledge. These projects prepare children for the study of more thematic geography projects in the following term.

In the spring term of Cycle A, children study the project Bright Lights, Big City. This project introduces children to the geography of urban environments and the physical and human features of the United Kingdom.

In contrast, in the spring term of Cycle B, children carry out a detailed study of coastal geography in the project Coastline. This project introduces children to the geography of coastal environments and provides children with the opportunity for in-depth coastal fieldwork.

Class 2
In Class 2, children begin with essential skills and knowledge projects (One Planet, Our World in Cycle A and Interconnected World in Cycle B). Teaching these projects in Years 3 and 4 enables children to further develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of key geographical aspects and concepts and prepares them to study more thematic geography projects in the following term.

In the spring term of Cycle A, children carry out a detailed study of the physical features of mountains and rivers, which includes opportunities for in-depth fieldwork.

In contrast, in the spring term of Cycle B, children study the project Rocks, Relics and Rumbles, which explores physical features and geographical phenomena, including earthquakes and volcanoes.

Class 3
In Class 3, children again begin with essential skills and knowledge projects (Investigating Our World in Cycle A and Our Changing World in Cycle B). Teaching these projects in Years 5 and 6 enables children to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of key geographical aspects and concepts and prepares them to study more thematic geography projects in the following term.

In the spring term of Cycle A, children study the seasonal project Sow, Grow and Farm, which explores farming, agriculture and rural land use.

In the spring term of Cycle B, children study the polar regions in the project Frozen Kingdoms. The project includes an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of these regions, including environmental issues.

Throughout the geography scheme, there is complete coverage of all national curriculum programmes of study.