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. 

Geography 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.

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

Squirrels Class

In Understanding the World: People, Culture and Communities aspect, the children start by learning about their own community to conduct fieldwork and explore the school and immediate environment. This will develop for them to learn about the importance of recycling and making the classroom environmentally friendly.

There is an introduction to maps as pictorial representations of places and journeys. This knowledge is built on by making maps to represent places and journeys in stories. This will enable them to create their own maps by the end of the year. They will explore world maps and globes and use Google earth to view places worldwide including the UK.  Fieldwork is used to explore the changes through the seasons and this is a theme that develops throughout the year. 

Children will explore the theme of celebration and begin to learn about how life in their country differs from countries around the world. They will learn about a contrasting environment to where they live, making similarities and differences between the two places.  Children will learn about countries with different climates and discover how habitats and wildlife differ worldwide

Rabbits Class

In Rabbits Class, 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 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.

In contrast, in the spring term of Cycle B, 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.

Owls Class

In Owls Class, 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 study the project Rocks, Relics and Rumbles, which explores physical features and geographical phenomena, including earthquakes and volcanoes.

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

Badgers Class

In Badgers Class, 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 polar regions in the project Frozen Kingdoms. The project includes an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of these regions, including environmental issues.

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

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