Alston Lane Catholic Primary School & Nursery

Geography Curriculum Statement

Intent

In our school the teaching of Geography inspires a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with pupils for the rest of their lives. We aim to 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.

Through their study of Geography, our children will learn to appreciate, value and understand God’s precious world on a local and global scale.  We believe that by gaining the geographical knowledge and understanding of how the Earth’s features are shaped, interconnected and changed over time and the complex interaction between human and physical features, our children will understand their role within the world to protect it.

Implementation

Our geography curriculum has been designed so topics build on one another with clear progression and links so that in subsequent year groups, children will be able to explore concepts deeper, applying their knowledge in different contexts.

By taking a ‘zoom lens’ approach, our geography curriculum is organised so that pupils can develop their locational and place knowledge systematically as they progress through school. Starting with their immediate locality and progressing to the wider world, this allows our children to make comparisons as their knowledge and understanding develops.

Throughout each topic, links are made to the interactions between human and physical processes to enable pupils to think about their role in protecting our world on a local and global scale.   Through our carefully constructed ‘key questions’, our aim is to support children to become inquisitive and reflective learners who are able to organise their knowledge and showcase their understanding of what they have learned. 

By offering a variety of enrichment activities across our geography curriculum, we provide equality of access to knowledge and understanding, where all our pupils can achieve their full potential. These exciting and memorable activities also act as cues that our pupils can use to help retrieve key geographical knowledge generating sticky learning.

Knowledge Progression 

Each unit of work within our geography curriculum is further developed in a 'learning journey' document, which describes, in detail, the key knowledge that we want the children to acquire. 

These documents provide the medium term planning details that staff require to ensure prior knowledge is built upon, whilst looking forwards to future learning opportunities. In our EYFS setting, geography knowledge progression can be found in the 'Understanding of the World' learning journey, whilst in Key Stage 1 and 2, each geography topic has a specific learning journey.