Geography
Geography provides a means of exploring, appreciating, and understanding the world in which we live and how it has evolved. Geography explores the relationship between the Earth and its people through the study of place, space, and environment. It contributes to the cultural, social, spiritual and moral life of children as they acquire knowledge of a range of different cultures and traditions and learn tolerance and understanding of other people and environments. Geography is the subject in which pupils learn the skills of understanding a locality and how and where people fit into its overall structure. Developing geographical skills is essential as children live in a world that is wide open to them. With opportunities to travel and work in different cities and countries across the world, pupils need to efficiently use maps, charts, and other geographical data. The opportunities for the children to carry out geographical enquiry through fieldwork opportunities are also of value at our school.
The teaching of Geography would be difficult without acknowledging the future of our planet. The Geography Curriculum places great importance on the interaction between the physical and human environment. Many areas of study give us opportunities to make children aware of these effects upon their surroundings; including the local area, their own responsibilities and how they can contribute to improving the environment (however small that contribution might be).
As children work through the curriculum they will know more and understand more about their local area, the UK, Europe, and the World. This rigorous approach, covering and going beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum, leaves nothing to chance, building geographical knowledge and understanding in a way that builds on children’s prior knowledge, allowing them to make meaningful connections and gain an understanding of how our world is connected. Conceptual understanding is at the heart of our curriculum. Children will learn about key geographical concepts such as place, space, the environment, and interconnection.
Over time, working through an essential process of elaboration, children will add to their conceptual understanding with many examples of geographical knowledge in context. Children will become more skilled at answering questions such as; what is it like to live in this place? What are the challenges of this environment? How have people changed this landscape over time? Children will gain an understanding of what geographers do, what they look for and what they may say about a place. They will discover explorers such as Ibn Battuta, Roald Amundsen, and Captain James Cook. They will look at the migration of both animals and people, studying the impact migration and colonialism had on places such as Australia and New Zealand.
Each year our geography curriculum begins with a ‘Spatial Sense’ unit that explicitly teaches geographical skills such as locating places on a map, positioning items on a map, using symbols in a key, interpreting scale, reading climate graphs, identifying locations using co-ordinates, interpreting population data, identifying elevation on relief maps and more. The spatial sense units for each year group are positioned at the beginning of the year to explicitly teach skills which will then be used in context throughout the rest of the year as children apply those skills to learn more about people, places, and the environment. The spatial sense units build on prior knowledge before moving children on as the level of challenges increases from year to year.
BBC Bitesize is a great resource for a range of video clips, games and activities related to Geography. The following links will take you some great resources for you and your children to explore. Key Stage 2 (KS2) children are in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6. Key Stage 1 (KS1) children are in Year 1 and 2. Early Years children are in our Nursery and Reception classes.
Early years - England - BBC Bitesize Look at the Knowledge and Understanding of the World section.
Mrs Blackwell is the curriculum lead for Geography, across the academy.