Geography

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.

At St Nicolas Primary School we believe our Geography curriculum has been designed with the aim of inspiring in pupils a curiosity, fascination, awe and wonder about the world and the people that live in it, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

The curriculum provides the children with a knowledge and understanding of their local area; developing a sense of belonging. Children will compare their life to other areas in the UK, Europe and the wider world. This equips the children with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and physical and human environments. This will enable our 30-year-old adult to show respect, love and friendship and to learn to live side by side with our neighbours.

Geography is taught starting with a main enquiry question this drives each topic area and allows the children the opportunity to say what they would like to find out and what they already know. It is important we get pupils to make connections at the beginning of the learning process. We link new learning to previous learning this helps embed knowledge in long term memory as we return to learning again and again.

The 2014 National Curriculum for Geography aims to ensure all children covers the following key knowledge:

• Geographical skills and fieldwork, use of maps atlases, globes, digital mapping to locate countries and describe features studied. Use the eight points of the compass, four and six grid references symbols and keys to build their knowledge of the UK and the wider world.
• Place knowledge, to understand similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the UK , European country and a region in South America.
• Human and physical geography. Describe and understand key aspects including climate zones, biomes , rivers , mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, the water cycle and weather patterns .
• Locational knowledge- the four countries in the UK, capital cities and seas. Name and locate seven continents and five oceans. World countries concentrating on their environmental regions, physical and human characteristics. Identify the position and significance of latitude and longitude, Equator, N Hemisphere, S Hemisphere, The tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Artic and Antarctica circle and time zones.

We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum , ensuring the progressive development of geographical concepts , knowledge and skills ; and for our children to develop a love of Geography.