Geography

Geography Intent-What is Geography for? 

At Palterton Primary School, our Geography curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity aabout the world and its people so that it will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Many cross-curricular links are made through topic themes. 
Children will investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes.

We ensure that children are provided with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Palterton and Bolsover, so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.

We also encourage children ability to apply the geographical skills that they have learned to enable to confidently communicate their findings and geographical
understanding to a range of audiences. By revisiting these areas of learning regularly children will be able to build upon prior knowledge and understanding, which will help to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. We want our children to gain confidence and have practical experiences of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

The implementation of Geography-What will children learn in Geography?

EYFS

In EYFS, the early learning goals aim to guide children on to make sense of their physical world and their community by exploring, observing, and finding out about people, places, technology and the environment.

KS1

In Years 1 and 2, children will to begin to develop their geographical vocabulary by learning about where they live, as well as one other small area of the United Kingdom and a small area in a contrasting non-European country. They will learn about weather patterns in the United Kingdom and hot and cold regions of the world. They will use ICT, world maps, atlases and globes, simple compass directions, aerial photographs and plans, as well as simple fieldwork and observational skills.

KS2

In Years 3 to 6, the geography curriculum builds and expands on previous knowledge. There are three focus areas:

• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography

Locational knowledge examines latitude, longitude and time zones. Children will use maps to focus on Europe, North and South America, concentrating on regions, key physical/human characteristics, countries, and major cities. They will also work on locating the counties and cities of the United Kingdom, and start to explore their human and physical characteristics.

Children also examine geographical similarities and differences by comparing the geography of a region of the United Kingdom with a region in a European country, and with a region in either North or South America. This is part of the place knowledge aspect of the curriculum.

For human and physical geography, children will be taught to describe and understand key aspects of geography, for example: climate zones, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, the water cycle, types of settlement, economic activity and the distribution of natural resources. They will be encouraged to use geographical vocabulary within their learning.