Geography

National curriculum aims and purpose

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.  

Aims

• Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places, including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes 
• Understand the processes that give rise to key physical & human geographical features, how these are interdependent and how they bring about variation and change over time 

Are competent in the geographical skills needed to collect, analyse and communicate data ; interpret a range of sources; communicate geographical information in a variety of ways 

School curriculum aims 

We believe that a rounded understanding of the world in which we live is vital if our children are to make informed decisions as they grow up. We want all children to appreciate similarities and differences between different areas of our country, our continent and our planet, and begin to understand the effect that these have on everyday lives in these places. They will be taught about key features of physical geography, including rivers, mountains, rainforests, volcanoes and climate, learning both the processes behind them and the impact that they have on human environments. 

We also believe that locational knowledge - the ability to use and identify places on maps and globes - is crucial. All children should leave our school knowing where they live and where that is situated in the world. They will be able to name and locate the seven continents and five oceans, as well as some of the countries and regions that they have studied (such as the USA, Caribbean, Amazon rainforest, River Thames and Andes mountains).  

Finally, children will learn to behave like geographers, collecting information through fieldwork, data analysis, first– and second-hand accounts and map study. They will recognise the strengths and weaknesses of different sources of information, and use this to inform their own conclusions and decision making - both at school and in the wider world beyond.