Geography Subject Leader: Mr T Kelly
For any more information on St Botolph’s Geography Curriculum, please contact the office.
“Within Geography lessons we aim to inspire a curiosity of the ever-changing world whilst developing an understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes.”
Intent
We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Our aim is to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As geographers, pupils are exposed to a rich and balanced curriculum that provides them with new vocabulary and knowledge. Children will explore concepts such as diversity, interdependence, sustainability and change and will endeavour to find answers to key enquiry questions. We intend to equip children with the geographical skills to develop their knowledge through studying places, people, and environments.
Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills that will be transferrable to other curriculum areas which they will use throughout their lifetime.
Implementation
Our geography curriculum is designed to enrich discussions, expanding learning and understanding. Children have opportunities to investigate and interpret a range of geographical locations in Britain and across the wider world. We encourage children to become geographers by collecting, analysing and communicating through discussion our findings. Our geography lessons provide opportunities to support all abilities through investigations, outdoor learning and analysing data.
We teach geography in alternating blocks throughout the year, so children can achieve depth in their learning. Through revisiting and consolidating skills, our lessons help children build on prior knowledge. All children will expand their skills within the four areas of geography (locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, geographical skills and fieldwork).
All pupils have access to and enjoy using atlases, maps, globes, digital technology, books and photographs. Children have opportunities to experience geography through practical tasks beyond the classroom. We have a large amount of outdoor space in our Forest school to allow children to be hands on with the environment and allow us to achieve the desired outcomes. Educational visits and visitors take place throughout the year to extend children’s geography-based learning.
The curriculum ensures the skills required to meet the aims of the National Curriculum have been taught. The content allows for children to have a broader, deeper understanding of the four areas of geography. It develops pupils’ contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places and understanding of the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, along with how they bring about variation and change over time.
Impact
By the end of our curriculum, pupils will leave us equipped with a coherent geographical knowledge and understanding of the different strands of geography and the ability to be active participants in a global society. Children will be able to speak confidently about their geography learning, skills and knowledge, where they will use geographical vocabulary accurately. Children will also begin to make links to other curriculum subjects. They will improve their enquiry skills about the world around them, and their impact on the world. Children will also become competent in collecting, analysing and interpreting a range of geographical information and communicating this in a variety of ways.
Outcomes in books and pupil voice, evidence a broad and balanced geography curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Children review their successes in achieving the lesson objectives and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas.
Geography allows children to gain knowledge about different cultures and traditions as well as an understanding of other people and their environments. In an ever-changing world, our pupils will begin to consider the impact that their choices will make on the future of our planet and, their own future. Our geography curriculum will empower and allow our children to become better local and global citizens.
Geography in Each Stage
Understanding of the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities – Children at the expected level of development will: – Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps; – Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class; – Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.
In Key Stage 1, children will continue to build on their knowledge and understanding of the world around them and begin to use correct terms for simple geographical features. Pupils are given opportunities to use a range of resources, such as maps (including digital mapping) atlases and globes to investigate the world’s continents and oceans, as well as the countries and capitals of the United Kingdom and its surrounding areas. Children’s knowledge and skills are developed through their understanding of geographical similarities and differences between the human and physical geography of their locality. Weather and climate, both in the locality and around the world, are explored and children identify seasonal and daily weather patterns and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South. There are many opportunities for simple fieldwork where the pupils develop observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.
In Key Stage 2, children extend their knowledge and understanding of the world to include other continents. This understanding incorporates the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s significant human and physical features. Pupils will describe and understand key aspects of the physical geography of these places including climate zones, biomes, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and the water cycle, as well as the human geography of the areas such as types of settlement, land use and economic activities including trade links and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water supplies. Children use a wide range of geographical sources to investigate places and patterns and use maps, atlases, globes and digital mapping to locate countries and describe the features studied. Children become familiar with using the eight points of the compass, four-figure grid references, symbols and keys to building their knowledge of the world. Opportunities for fieldwork are given where children can observe, measure and record the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods.
Geography Progression
SEND Information
Geography lessons are accessible to all children, with adaptive teaching in place, based on the needs of all children in the classroom. Frequent revision of interventions, challenges and support ensures that all pupils are supported in achieving the learning in their unique way.
Geography Extra Resources
Further Geography Help