Geography

“Geography is about exploring our amazing world, discovering new places, understanding how people live and learning how we can make a difference.”

As a Church of England primary school, our Christian values of Love & Kindness, Friendship, Respect, Justice, Freedom & Responsibility, and Equality underpin everything we do.

Our Geography curriculum reflects these values by encouraging children to develop curiosity about the world, respect for different people and places, and an understanding of their responsibility to care for our planet.

Our LIVE curriculum encourages children to become:

• L – Life-Long Learners: Developing curiosity about the world and a desire to continue exploring and understanding it.

• I – Immersive: Learning through meaningful geographical enquiries, first-hand experiences, fieldwork and exploration.

• V – Valuing Diversity: Appreciating the similarities and differences between places, people, cultures and environments across the world.

• E – Enquiring Minds: Asking geographical questions, investigating evidence, making connections and developing informed opinions.

Intent: What do we want our pupils to learn?

At Bickerton Holy Trinity, our ambition is for every child to develop a secure understanding of the world, its people, places and environments, and their own place within it.

Our carefully sequenced Geography curriculum enables children to build their knowledge and understanding progressively, beginning with their immediate surroundings and extending to the United Kingdom and the wider world.

We believe that geography is about much more than locating places on a map. It is about understanding the relationships between people and environments, recognising patterns and processes, and exploring how the world is changing.

Our curriculum develops both:

• Substantive knowledge: What children know about geographical places, features, processes and environments.

• Disciplinary knowledge: How children think and work as geographers through enquiry, fieldwork, observation, data collection, interpretation and geographical reasoning.

Our curriculum is structured around carefully identified Golden Threads – recurring geographical concepts and ways of thinking that help children connect and deepen their learning over time.

We aim for pupils to:

• Develop secure locational and place knowledge, from their local area to the wider world.

• Understand important physical and human geographical processes.

• Recognise the relationships and connections between people, places and environments.

• Develop confidence in using maps, atlases, globes, digital mapping and geographical data.

• Ask meaningful geographical questions and investigate them through enquiry and fieldwork.

• Compare places, recognising similarities, differences and the reasons behind them.

• Understand environmental challenges and consider the impact of human activity.

• Appreciate cultural diversity and develop a sense of responsibility for the world around them.

Implementation: How do we teach Geography?

Our Geography curriculum follows a carefully sequenced approach that begins with the familiar and progressively extends children's geographical understanding.

In Reception and Key Stage 1, children revisit their immediate locality, building secure knowledge of the environment around them.

As their understanding develops, pupils explore places across the United Kingdom and the wider world, continually making connections and comparisons with their own experiences.

Our local environment provides an important starting point and reference for geographical learning throughout the school.

This approach enables children to draw on first-hand experiences, develop meaningful geographical vocabulary and understand increasingly complex concepts.

A progressive curriculum for mixed-age classes

Our Geography curriculum has been carefully designed to meet the needs of our mixed-age teaching groups.

Through our rolling curriculum, we ensure that pupils develop geographical knowledge and skills progressively, while maintaining clear expectations for each year group.

We carefully map National Curriculum coverage and knowledge end points, tracking pupils' learning as they move between class configurations.

This enables us to identify prior knowledge, build on existing understanding and address any gaps in curriculum coverage.

Our approach reflects our commitment to different routes towards the same ambitious learning destination.

Golden Threads: Making connections in Geography

Our Geography Golden Threads provide a consistent framework for developing and connecting geographical knowledge.

Substantive Golden Threads help children revisit important geographical concepts across different topics and places.

Disciplinary Golden Threads develop the knowledge and skills children need to investigate the world as geographers.

Through carefully planned enquiries, pupils learn to:

• Ask relevant geographical questions.

• Observe and investigate places and environments.

• Collect, record and interpret geographical information.

• Use maps, photographs, data and other geographical sources.

• Identify patterns, relationships and differences.

• Explain geographical processes and make evidence-informed conclusions.

These concepts and approaches are revisited throughout the curriculum with increasing depth and complexity.

Geography in the Early Years

In Reception, geographical understanding begins through the EYFS area of Understanding the World.

Children explore their immediate environment through play, observation, stories, discussion and first-hand experiences.

They begin to recognise features of their local surroundings, describe familiar places and develop an awareness of similarities and differences between environments.

These experiences establish important foundations for future geographical learning.

Geography in Key Stage 1

In Years 1 and 2, children build on their early experiences by developing knowledge of their locality, the United Kingdom and the wider world.

They learn to identify human and physical features, use simple maps and geographical vocabulary, and observe seasonal and daily weather patterns.

Children develop early geographical enquiry skills through fieldwork, observation, comparison and the use of simple geographical information.

Geography in Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, pupils extend their locational and place knowledge, studying a wider range of environments, regions and geographical processes.

They develop a deeper understanding of physical and human geography, including the relationships between people, places and the natural world.

Children use increasingly sophisticated geographical skills, including interpreting maps and data, investigating geographical patterns and conducting purposeful fieldwork.

They are encouraged to explain geographical processes, consider different perspectives and draw conclusions supported by evidence.

Fieldwork and geographical enquiry

Our rural location provides valuable opportunities for children to investigate the local environment, observe geographical features and explore the relationships between people and places.

Children learn to collect and record information through observations, surveys, maps, photographs, measurements and other age-appropriate methods.

Fieldwork enables pupils to apply their classroom learning in real contexts, develop independence and recognise that geography is happening all around them.

High-quality teaching and inclusion

Geography is taught through carefully structured lessons that combine explicit teaching, geographical enquiry, discussion and practical experiences.

Teachers use retrieval practice, modelling, purposeful questioning and carefully selected resources to support pupils in remembering and applying their learning.

Our approach reflects the principles of Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP), ensuring that all children, including those with SEND, can access an ambitious Geography curriculum.

Visual resources, vocabulary support, maps, practical experiences and appropriate scaffolding enable pupils to develop and communicate their geographical understanding.

Impact: How do we know our Geography curriculum is successful?

The impact of our Geography curriculum is reflected in children's growing understanding of the world and their ability to think and investigate as young geographers.

We want pupils to:

• Know and remember more: Demonstrate secure geographical knowledge and make connections between places, processes and environments.

• Think geographically: Ask questions, investigate evidence, recognise patterns and explain geographical relationships.

• Use geographical vocabulary confidently: Describe and explain places, features and processes accurately.

• Apply geographical skills: Use maps, fieldwork techniques and geographical data with increasing confidence and independence.

• Make meaningful connections: Apply their understanding of the Golden Threads across different geographical contexts.

• Value diversity: Appreciate different cultures, communities, environments and ways of life.

• Develop environmental responsibility: Understand how human actions affect the planet and consider ways to care for our world.

Through assessment, pupil discussion, fieldwork and the review of learning against clearly identified curriculum end points, teachers evaluate what pupils know, understand and can apply, using this information to inform future teaching.

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