Geography
Intent
At Christ Church Primary School, we aim to inspire children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We believe in encouraging all children to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. This will instil a passion and interest for the subject overall, providing children with the key skills and vocabulary needed to be confident geographers. Learning is linked to a range of topics and the children will have opportunities to investigate places, investigate patterns and communicate geographically. They will build on their prior learning and revisit these areas regularly, allowing them to remember more, know more and understand more.
Skills
Children at Christ Church will develop an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, using geography to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. They will have opportunities to use geographical enquiry and apply these questioning skills, allowing them to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings. We will also develop the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences, alongside opportunities to use fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
Opportunites
Our children will have the opportunity to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment. They will display levels of originality, imagination or creativity through interpretations and representations of the subject matter. We see exploring geography within the context of the immediate and wider local area as highly valuable and our children will be provided with the chance to explore the geography of their locality. We are committed to providing them with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Chadderton and Oldham so that they can develop a real sense of who they are and what makes their local area unique. Geography at Christ Church will also allow our children to be immersed in exciting learning opportunities which endorse outdoor learning either in the school grounds, local area or wider community, alongside educational visits.
Implementation
The geography curriculum is led and overseen by the history and curriculum lead.
A regular programme of monitoring, evaluation / review and the celebration of good practice will contribute to the on-going commitment to evolve and improve further. The teaching, learning and sequence of the geography curriculum follows a block curriculum approach which has been implemented to ensure coverage and progression in all skills related to geography.
Children in Key Stage 1 will:
- Investigate the world’s continents and oceans.
- Investigate the countries and capitals of the United Kingdom.
- Compare and contrast a small area of the United Kingdom with that of a non-European country.
- Explore weather and climate in the United Kingdom and around the world.
- Use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to and describe key physical and human features of locations.
- Use world maps, atlases and globes.
- Use simple compass directions.
- Use aerial photographs.
- Use fieldwork and observational skills.
Children in Key Stage 2 will:
- Locate the world’s countries, with a focus on Europe and countries of particular interest to pupils.
- Locate the world’s countries, with focus on North and South America and countries of particular interest to pupils.
- Identify key geographical features of the countries of the United Kingdom, and show an understanding of how some of these aspects have changed over time.
- Locate the geographic zones of the world.
- Understand the significance of the geographic zones of the world.
- Understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region or area of the United Kingdom (different from that taught at Key Stage 1).
- Understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region or area in a European country.
- Understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of the human and physical geography of a region or area within North or South America.
- Describe and understand key aspects of: physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes and the water cycle.
- Describe and understand key aspects of: human geography, including: settlements, land use, economic activity including trade links and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water supplies.
- Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
- Use the eight points of a compass, four-figure grid references, symbols and keys (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build knowledge of the United Kingdom and the world.
- Use a wide range of geographical sources in order to investigate places and patterns.
- Use fieldwork to observe, measure and record the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs and digital technologies.
Take a look at our current geography overview by clicking this link.
Knowledge Organisers
The use of knowledge organisers are to aide teachers in planning their knowledge and skills and children in understanding the expectations by the end of the topic.
Click on the year group below to see their current knowledge organiser.