Key Concepts

A range of these ideas are explored through each Geography unit and provide lenses through which to consider different aspects of this area of the pupils’ geographical development.

• Navigation: (interpreting a key, conventions of maps, map symbols, atlases, GIS, google maps, scale factor, reading and calculating from a scale, using compass points, the equator, the tropic lines, the poles, borders, countries and continents)
• Fieldwork: (Working collaboratively, planning investigations, collecting data, using instruments/specialist equipment, taking precise measurements, making observations, drawing conclusions)
• Economic activity: (Trade, land use, farming, wealth, poverty, imports and exports)
• Tectonic activity: (Volcanoes, earthquakes, tectonic plates, structure of the earth)
• Human features: (Transports, harbour, shops, towns, villages, community, places of worship)
• Physical features: (Water cycle, rainfall, mountains, hills, rivers, seas, oceans, tides, islands, tsunami)
• Natural resources: (Energy, minerals, food and water distribution)
• Sustainability: (Deforestation, climate change, renewable and non-renewable resources, sea level, food miles, industry, materials, globalisation)
• Climate and landscape: (Weather, rainfall, seasons, temperature, desert, polar, temperate, Mediterranean, arid, tropical, biomes, vegetation zones, tundra)

 

Second order concepts: These can be used across all aspects of geography to organize the substantive knowledge taught.

• Responsibility: (how humans affect the earth positively and negatively, the use of finite resources, climate change and sustainability)
• Similarity and difference: (making comparisons between places, localities, regions etc…)
• Cause and consequence: (understanding the effect of humans and nature on landscapes and settlement)
• Continuity and change: (how have physical and human features changed over time and why)
• Significance: (significant geographical features, places, events)
• Enquiry: (observing, collecting and interpreting data, drawing conclusions, explaining and presenting findings)
• Written and oral expression: (Using geographical terminology, evaluation, description, recall, objectivity, explaining processes, describing and explaining trends, presenting and interpreting data

Any child working below their age-related expectation, will receive a tailored curriculum with personalised objectives taken from the Curriculum Assessment tools. This will enable all children to build the skills and knowledge needed to bridge the gap between themselves and their peers enabling them to reach their full potential.

 

Using the National Curriculum, Geography has been broken down into 4 main strands: 

Locational knowledge

Place knowledge

Human and physical geography

Geographical skills and field work. 

Furthermore, we have included an additional focus on human’s responsibility in caring for and developing a sustainable world.

In Geography, by the end of EYFS children will:

Begin to understand how they are part of their own locality which is part of a bigger world. They will learn about different people and communities and use speaking, listening and understanding to develop and explore these in greater detail linked to broad overarching topics. They will be able to comprehend the features of their immediate environment and how this might vary from others.

By the end of Key Stage 1 children will:

Use and make a range of geographical resources such as photos and maps to locate features in their locality and the world. They will understand the principle of directions and look at land use, climate and physical features of Great Britain and other locations in the world.

By the end of Key Stage 2 children will:

Be able to compare their own locality to different locations around the world. They will conduct simple fieldwork to exemplify common geographical processes and develop an understanding of map work such that these features can be examined and identified in a wider context. Children will gain knowledge of the impact of humans on the landscape and recognize the impact of themselves and that of nature in shaping the world in which they live.