Geography

History and geography is taught alternatively over the half terms. We focus on ensuring there is progression across the curriculum and that it builds upon previous understanding of the declarative knowledge and procedural skills. We have 4 main threads within our geography curriculum these are locational knowledge, place knowledge, human/ physical geography and geography skills/ field work. Within every unit, the lessons link to one of these threads that lead from foundation stage through to Year 6.

Foundation Stage: In Early Years, pupils are enabled to take on the role of a geographer, exploring, discovering and beginning to make sense of the world around them, which is an important consideration when planning for the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum. The area focusing on ‘Understanding the world’ in particular presents the opportunity for pupils to reflect on the events and routines that they and their peers experience.

Pupils should be supported to make sense of the world around them through having multiple opportunities to explore their physical world, local community and beyond. These experiences will be a mixture of ‘first hand’ and ‘imaginary’, but will fundamentally be practical in nature and involve an enriching vocabulary. For example:

First hand and sensory:

• Visit local places of significance such as the park and the church
• Explore the school grounds and local areas in different weathers, seasons and times of day.
• Interact with visitors such as members of the church community, school nurses

Imaginary:

• Role-play, including the use of small world play, loose parts and manipulatives
• Construction with a range of materials from blocks and boxes to sand and water
• Exploration of what places and people/characters are like through sharing a range of fictional and non-fictional stories.

KS1 (Year 1/2): When looking at locational knowledge we start by focussing on areas within close proximity. These units include our school and our village, before looking at where Northamptonshire lies within the UK. Before going to LKS2 children will also learn about the 7 continents and 5 oceans. They will look at where these are positioned on a world map/ globe, including if they are in hot or cold areas. Children learn how to use simple compass directions and simple maps/ keys.

KS2 (Year 3/4/5/6): Once the children’s knowledge of the UK is embedded they begin to compare aspects of locational knowledge and human/ physical geography with other areas of the world such as Italy (Year 3/4) and North and South America (Year 5/6). Children learn about the physical geography of rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes. Children will build on their knowledge of compasses and maps from KS1 as well at look at population distribution maps and land use maps. Computers are used to look at digital maps on Google Earth/ DigiMaps.