Geography
Geography Lead - Mrs L Hardman
At Lowerplace, geography lessons focus on inspiring children’s curiosity and interest to explore the world and its people. We aim to ignite a love of learning about the world. The geography programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 national curriculum (Department of Education 2013) states “pupils should be equipped with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes.” At Lowerplace, our geography curriculum has been designed with the aim of equipping children with that knowledge.
Children will also learn to develop geographical skills of research, investigation, analysis and problem solving using maps, atlases, photographs, fieldwork and digital technology.
Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject. Through our teaching, we intend to provoke thought, questions and encourage children to discover and answer their own questions through exploration and research. This enables children to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world we all live in.
Our geography curriculum develops the children’s disciplinary and substantive knowledge in the following areas
- Locational Knowledge
- Place Knowledge
- Human and Physical Geography
- Geographical Skills and Fieldwork
In EYFS the children learn
- where the local shops are and have an understanding why there is a need for shops, schools, churches, etc.
- some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries
- some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country
- to describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps
In KS1 the children learn
- the names of the four countries that make up the UK and their capital cities and the names and location of the seven continents and five oceans of the world.
- Know features of hot and cold places in the world, including the equator and North and South poles.
- That the climate may be different in England when compared to other places in the world, especially Africa
- About the weather including the main weather symbols and the hottest and coldest season in the UK
- the main differences between city, town and village and recognise the features of mountains, lakes islands, valleys, rivers, cliffs, forest and beaches
- To recognise which materials it is important to recycle
- Mapping skills including recognising N, E, S and W on a compass, that all streets have a name, including post code, how to follow a simple road map and locate a number of cities on a map of the UK
In KS2 the children learn
- the difference between Great Britain, The British Isles and the United Kingdom, the names and location of counties and cities in England, the names of countries from the southern and northern hemisphere, European, and North and South America including and major capital cities across the world, the main mountain regions and rivers in the UK and there location, where the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and the Greenwich Meridian are on a world map and about time zones
- how a mountain and river is formed, the main feature of a river, why people live near rivers and the water cycle, what causes an earthquake and the different parts of a volcano
- Know what is meant by biomes and what are the features of a specific biome
- Understand terms like raw material, manufacturing, import and export and why industrial areas and ports are important and the main human and physical differences between developed and third world countries
- Understand the main arguments related to climate change, what is meant by ozone layer and the urgency in relation to dealing with climate change
- Know how to use graphs to record features such as temperature or rainfall across the world, to use appropriate special language when giving directions, most of the symbols used on a UK road map, including status of roads, some of the main features of a satnav
- how Google Earth and digimaps to locate a country or place of interest and to follow the journey of rivers, etc, familiar with topographical maps and know about contours, etc, what most of the ordnance survey symbols stand for and how to use six-figure grid references
At Lowerplace the children study a new unit of work each term. Each unit of work is broken down into five separate components that make up the lessons in this topic. Knowledge organisers for each topic outline the key knowledge and vocabulary that children will learn. We help children to remember and retain the key information that they have leant. In order to support them in doing this, retrieval activities are a regular and key part of our lessons, helping children to remember what they have already learnt and make links form this to their new learning.