Geography
The school’s intent for Geography learning focuses on developing children’s understanding of locational knowledge, place knowledge and human and physical geography alongside their geographical skills to widen their understanding of the world. The school’s context is such that the children’s understanding of their locality, and how it relates to the UK and wider world, is limited. Therefore, a strong understanding of the where they live, the locality around them, the UK and where the UK “fits” in the rest of the world is integral to our curriculum. We aim to ensure that by the time the children move to KS3 they will be confident in their locational knowledge locally, nationally and worldwide. As each Autumn unit of work is studied, the children will revisit their prior learning to recap upon the places they have studied previously thus gaining a strong understanding of the UK and its features.
In the Spring Term, the children study the wider world and use the knowledge gained about the UK to study different localities. As well as developing locational knowledge, comparisons will be drawn between the cities in the UK and those in Europe (Year 3), the coasts and rivers in the UK and those Globally (Year 4), the hills and mountains in the UK and those in Europe (Year 5). In Year 6 the similarities between a place in South America and the UK will enable the children to apply their skills and knowledge they have gained in other units.
In the Summer Term the focus moves to the study of Physical Geography. The units of study will develop some of their prior knowledge e.g. Year 4 will study Water Cycles to develop their understanding of Coasts and Rivers and build upon the Scientific knowledge gained in the Autumn term. In Year 6, the children will further develop their understanding of climate zones, having learnt about the Equator in the Autumn term. Some will look at individual, natural phenomena e.g. Year 3 will study volcanoes and earthquakes. In Year 5 the children will use their geographical knowledge to understand why some areas are used for settlement and other land uses whilst others are still uninhabited building on their locational knowledge in previous terms.
