Geography
Intent
At St. Anne’s, we aim to develop a deep understanding of Geography within all of our learners. We instil key skills to help children to develop their locational knowledge, knowledge of place, knowledge of human and physical features and geographical skills knowledge through a broad and balanced curriculum. Geography is taught through stand-alone lessons, with opportunities to develop their understanding and knowledge throughout other areas in the curriculum. This is through a variety of media, literature, trips and activities in and around our school community. It is taught during 2-3 half terms each year, alternating with History.
Implementation
Our aim is to ensure that children have progressive knowledge from EYFS to KS2 in line with the National Curriculum 2014. We use a variety of sources of information to help assist and guide children in their development of field work and book work. This ranges from atlases, maps, physical equipment such as compasses and much more. Children develop fundamental key skills which are transferable across other subjects and build on knowledge which they have learned from previous year groups. For example, in Year One, children learn about where they live, which is expanded on when learning about the UK and where our school is situated within the UK. This is then developed further in Year Two where children will locate where in the world they are, using and developing their map, geographical and locational skills.
As the children develop their contextual knowledge, they begin to make sense of their learning about physical processes. For example, in Year Two they look at where mountains are located in the UK, recapping this learning in Year Six, before expanding their knowledge about how mountains were made.
Across the school, we teach a variety of units such as Settlements, Volcanoes and Earthquakes, The Water Cycle, Oceans, Capital Cities and much more.
Impact
Overall, children will be able to:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places;
- Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world;
- Can collect, analyse and communicate a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepened their understanding;
- Interpret a range of sources of geographical information (maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and;
- Evidence geographical information in a variety of ways.
We encourage children to develop an enthusiastic outlook towards Geography and provide knowledgeable learning experiences to help aid them with their enquiry about the world around them.
At St. Anne’s, we encourage children to reflect purposefully and knowledgeably throughout their learning in Geography, developing their ‘sticky knowledge’ and individual learning flares, with our school mission “Christ at the heart of all we do” being reflected throughout.
