English

Geography

'Learning for life, building a firm foundation.'

“The whole world of life is coming to terms with yourself and the natural world. Why are you here? How do you fit in? What’s it all about?”

Why we teach your child geography:

Our aim is to give children a high-quality geography education to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We want children to develop their awareness of where they live and how is it similar and different to the world beyond them. It is important to us that the children at All Saints CE Primary School and nursery gain an extensive base of geography knowledge and vocabulary so that they, as well-informed citizens, can express well-balanced opinions about current issues in society and the environment. What is more, the geographical skills they develop give them distinctive tools with which to successfully navigate and engage with their world. The valuing of personal experience of space and place lies at the heart of our geography curriculum. Overall, it is our aim to foster in our learners a genuine interest in Geography, change (locally and globally) and possible futures, which they will take to secondary school and beyond!

What our curriculum looks like:

Our geography curriculum is ambitious, and this starts right from Nursery. Using the content from the National Curriculum and the Early Years Framework we have carefully sequenced our geography curriculum so children learn in a logical step by step manner.

Our geography curriculum progression map can be found on this page.

We then create our medium-term plans which set out the core knowledge and skills children will be learning.

Each unit of learning begins with an ‘Enquiry Question’ such as:

Where is our school? or What is a rainforest?

How we teach geography:

As with every subject, we recognise what makes geography unique, and as a result make pedagogical choices to ensure teaching is the best it can possibly be.

How you can help your child at home:

EYFS and Key Stage 1

Encourage your child to observe the world around them. On a walk talk about how some houses and buildings look older than others.
Talk about your route to school or the shops. What do you see on the way? Can you draw what you see? Can you draw a simple may?
Look at a map of the UK- where you do live? Have you lived anywhere else?
Visit different parks and compare it to your local area. How does it look different? How are the sounds that you can hear different to the sounds in your local area?

Key Stage 2

Visit the National Geographic Kids for the most amazing videos and facts about our wonderful world, along with fun competitions, games and more!
The Ordnance Survey Mapzone is full of lively online activities and games that children can play, which also develop their map skills and knowledge.
Visit the Natural History Museum and explore the Volcanoes and Earthquakes section.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

It may seem strange to think about your 3 or 4 year old child as a geographer. However, the years from birth to age five provide a first opportunity to see how your child interacts with their environment — and how the environment influences them. The early learning goals at EYFS aim to guide your child onto make sense of their physical world and their community by exploring, observing, and finding out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Key Stage 1

In Years 1 and 2, your child will be asked to begin to develop a geographical vocabulary by learning about where they live, as well as one other small area of the United Kingdom and a small area in a contrasting non-European country. They will learn about weather patterns in the United Kingdom and hot and cold areas of the world. They will use ICT, world maps, atlases and globes, simple compass directions, aerial photographs and plans, as well as simple fieldwork and observational skills. Schools have flexibility to choose the areas they teach and there is considerable variation between schools in their approaches.

Key Stage 2

In Years 3 to 6, the geography curriculum retains some flexibility, and builds and expands on previous knowledge. There are three focus areas:

Locational knowledge
Place knowledge
Human and physical geography

Locational knowledge examines latitude, longitude and time zones. Your child will use maps to focus on Europe, North and South America, concentrating on regions, key physical / human characteristics, countries, and major cities. They will also work on locating the counties and cities of the United Kingdom, and start to explore their human and physical characteristics.

Children also examine geographical similarities and differences by comparing the geography of a region of the United Kingdom with a region in a European country, and with a region in either North or South America. This is part of the place knowledge aspect of the curriculum.

For human and physical geography, your child will be taught to describe and understand key aspects of geography, for example: climate zones, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, the water cycle, types of settlement, economic activity and the distribution of natural resources.

Further support and useful websites

The BBC Bitesize websites link to videos, games and information a wide range of geographical knowledge: