Geography Intent
We at St. Anne’s believe that teaching Geography should provide our children with a better understanding of our ever-changing world. Children should deepen this through a range of experiences involving a variety of primary and secondary sources and conducted through investigation, including local geographical features and new environments. Geography is taught through:
- the geographical skills eg using photographs, maps and atlases, carrying out fieldwork.
- the concepts of place, location, cause and effect, change and decision-making.
We start with the familiar school context and spread outwards to the local, the regional, the national and beyond. Themes are liked across the year groups and skills and concepts are further built upon. Children develop their substantive knowledge and gain an insight into how a ‘geographer’ thinks, showing progress by knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more.
Our purpose is to inspire children to become curious and fascinated with our world both locally, including the immediate market town environment, and further afield. Regardless of a child’s age, ability or background they will develop dynamic skills linked to the ever-changing nature of the world we live in. Specifically, children should consistently be critical and passionate learners with reference to ‘space, place and scale’ as well as the range of geographical concepts they are learning. Our EYFS children will understand, through their appropriate area of learning how their environment and community influence them by guiding them to people and places that they can observe and explore. Children within Key Stage 1 will further develop their geographical vocabulary by comparing and contrasting locations nationally and internationally, and complete fieldwork within and beyond our locality. Our Key Stage 2 curriculum aims to build upon those previously learnt skills and knowledge, yet still provide children with new and engaging experiences that allow them to develop a life-long love for Geography. Children’s learning will incorporate knowledge around location and place, human and physical geography and building an effective bank of geographical vocabulary.
We believe our Geography curriculum is aspirational for all. Throughout their time with us, our children are immersed in a learning journey that encompasses both Geography-specific skills and knowledge. As we embrace our curriculum, we are giving the children the skills and knowledge to become global citizens, whilst deepening their interest in exploring their own place in the ever-changing world that they live in, through a joint Humanities local context project.
National Curriculum Purpose of study
A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. 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. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Aims
The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:
- develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
- understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
- are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
- interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.