Geography

"Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future." (Michael Palin)

We recognise the importance of a high-quality geography education, from Early Years to Key Stage 2, that inspires in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. As our children progress through this immersive topical subject, they are equipped 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 children progress, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. 

 

The acquisition and development of geographical knowledge and skills begins in the Early Years - in particular, within the area of learning entitled ‘understanding the world’.  Here we create an ethos of curiosity, exploration, and a love of learning through purposefully planned responses to children’s interests, continuous provision, high quality interactions, real-life experiences and a stimulating, enabling, language-rich indoor and outdoor learning environment.

 

We understand the importance of outdoor learning as it encourages children to develop an appreciation of the outdoors whilst broadening the range of environments in which they experience learning. In turn, this enables them to have enhanced, and therefore more memorable, learning experiences. We aim to deliver aspects of our geography curriculum using the outdoor learning approach, where appropriate, to give the children the chance to gain those exciting and engaging geographical experiences.

 

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, within the Whyteleafe Geography Curriculum, geographical knowledge, processes and skills are grouped into half termly units of learning and taught in a manner that reflects their interdependence.  Knowledge and understanding of processes acquired through the Key Stage 1 and 2 units are drawn from the following categories: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human geography, physical geography.  Key Stage 1 units include opportunities to locate the continents and oceans of the world, identify the countries, seas, and cities of the UK, and describe weather patterns. Key Stage 2 units include opportunities to explore parts of the wider world including North America, South America, and Russia, and to describe processes such as earthquakes, volcanoes and the water cycle.  Children’s local, national, and global studies are designed to reflect a range of cultures, social groups and people to mirror and broaden children’s experiences and actively encourage anti-racism and discourage discrimination.  They are encouraged to challenge any preconceptions about different groups of people. Diversity is celebrated, giving children a broad and balanced view of the significant people and places of the world. 

 

Opportunities to develop geographical skills and experience fieldwork are woven throughout units and taught as an explicit focus in a year 2 and year 3 unit.  When doing so, children also have the opportunity to use and apply their mathematical understanding from the statistics and position and direction domains, including collecting, presenting and analysing data, and describing position, direction and movement, using mathematical vocabulary. Our pedagogical principles drive teaching and learning across our school - including within Geography.  They support the transfer of knowledge and skills from working to long term memory, strengthen memories, increase retention, build deep, holistic, connected, and sustainable thinking, and ensure all children know more, remember more, and can do more.