Geography is a valued part of the Learning Pathways curriculum as it 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. Geography provokes and answers questions about the natural and human world, using different scales of enquiry to help pupils to do this, and it also helps them to view people, places and environments from different perspectives.  It develops knowledge of places and environments throughout the world, an understanding of maps, and a range of investigative and problem-solving skills, both inside and outside the classroom.  As such, it prepares pupils for adult life and employment.  Geography is a focus within the curriculum for understanding and resolving issues about the environment and sustainable development.  It is also an important link between the natural and social sciences.  As pupils study geography, they encounter different societies and cultures.  This helps them realise how nations rely on each other.  It can inspire them to think about their own place in the world, their values, and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.  They begin to realise how nations rely on each other and this can inspire them to think about their own place in the world, their values, and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.

Geography stimulates curiosity and imagination and we aim to build upon the child's "personal geography" by developing geographical skills, understanding and knowledge through studying places and themes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.

 
 

Our Geography provision is designed:
• To prepare children for the world in which they live and prepare them for their adult life in a complex
and multicultural society.
• To help children to be able to investigate the physical and human aspects of their local and wider
environment.
• To help children to be able to undertake fieldwork activities of various kinds and be able to
communicate what they have found out.
• To help children to be able to use and interpret maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs
• To help the children develop a geographical vocabulary and to communicate geographical
information in a variety of ways, including maps and writing.
• To help the children to be able to carry out in depth studies of a variety of physical features and
localities.
• To help the children to develop the enquiry skills needed to use secondary sources, including ICT, in
order to develop a deeper understanding of the world in which they live.
• To help children to develop an understanding of the nature of places: how they may be similar to
other places and may differ also, how physical features and human activities influence them and how
they are set in a wider geographical context.
• To help children to formulate geographical questions and to make informed judgments.
• To help children to develop a range of communication skills using a wide range of media, including ICT.
 

Teaching and learning style
The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in geography lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding. We do this through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual / group activities. Teachers encourage the children to ask as well as answer scientific questions. The children have the opportunity to use a variety of secondary sources of information, where it will enhance learning as well as gaining first hand experiences, for example, the use of books, photographs, graphs, diagrams, models and IT.
Teachers may employ the following methods when delivering science sessions:

• Setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of responses
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty (we do not expect all children to complete all tasks)
• Providing a range of challenges with different resources
• Using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups
• Incorporating high order questions that apply to scientific thinking to extend the most able children in science
 

Planning

This subject is a component subject within the Primary Learning Pathways Curriculum (and a foundation subject in the national curriculum). Teachers plan using the Geography Progression (and rolling programmes) to produce medium term plans. Units may be enquiry or area led and links may be made to other subjects. Our units are typically designed to run half termly but may be shorter blocks or specific projects. Challenges, enquiry and investigation generally drive these projects. Geography is taught through discreet (standalone) subject work and  may be blocked into days / sessions according to the project based approach.

 

Early Years (EYFS)
Teaching and learning within geography for pupils in the EYFS is delivered and monitored via the ‘Understanding the World’ strand of the curriculum. This is delivered via a range of topics including about their immediate environment and the wider word.
 

Locational knowledge
• Name and locate the world’s 7 continents and 5 oceans and at KS2 locate the selected countries,
using maps to concentrate on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics
and major cities
• Name, locate and identify characteristics of the 4 countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas and at KS2 name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features, land-use patterns and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
• At KS2 identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)
 

Place knowledge
• At KS1 understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country
• At KS2 understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country and a region in North or South America
 

Human and physical geography
At KS1:
• identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold
areas of the world use basic geographical vocabulary
• key physical features
• key human features
At KS2 describe and understand key aspects of:
• physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
• human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
 

Geographical skills and fieldwork
At KS1 use:
• World maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the
countries, continents and oceans studied
• Simple compass directions and locational and directional language to describe the location of
features and routes
• Aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
• Simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of the school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.
At KS2 use:
• Maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
• The 8 points of a compass, 4- and 6-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
• Fieldwork to observe, measure record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies

 

Partnerships and Learning Opportunities

Our delivery is enhanced by our partnership work with several organisations. We are learning partners with Exmoor National Park. This involves direct support from rangers both in school and fieldwork. Further project work such as the Exmoor Challenge Project (with Exmoor Rotary) not only involves crossover curriculum delivery but also brings Geographical knowledge and skills into real world practical application. We link up with the Met Office in Exeter to bring exciting science and Geography links to our children.

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