Geography

Intent - What we want for our developing geographers?

At Horn’s Mill, we want children to be curious about the world around them and to develop the knowledge and skills needed to understand it. Our geography curriculum is designed to help children make sense of places, people and environments, from their immediate surroundings in Helsby to the wider UK, Europe, North America and South America.

We want our children to think like geographers. This means asking questions about places, investigating geographical patterns and processes, gathering and interpreting evidence, making comparisons and using what they know to reach conclusions.

Our curriculum has been carefully sequenced so that geographical knowledge and skills build progressively from EYFS to Year 6. Children revisit important geographical ideas in increasingly sophisticated contexts, enabling them to make connections between previous and new learning.      

Our geography curriculum aims to:

• inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people;
• develop secure knowledge of places, people, resources and natural and human environments;
• build strong locational knowledge, enabling children to locate and contextualise the places they study;
• develop children's understanding of important human and physical geographical processes and the relationships between them;
• progressively develop children's ability to use maps, atlases, globes, aerial and satellite imagery and digital mapping;
• provide meaningful fieldwork experiences in which children observe, measure, record, present and interpret geographical information;
• develop increasingly sophisticated geographical vocabulary;
• enable children to compare places and consider how and why they are similar or different;
• encourage children to consider different viewpoints and understand how people's decisions can affect places and environments;
• provide an ambitious geography curriculum that is accessible to all pupils.

Implementation - How is the curriculum delivered?

Together, these ensure children develop both the geographical knowledge and the practical skills needed to understand and investigate the world.

Units of learning Our main geography units are structured around enquiry questions. Rather than simply learning a collection of facts about a place or geographical feature, children investigate questions which require them to apply their knowledge and think geographically.

Children begin with their own locality and contrasting places before progressively extending their understanding of the wider world. For example, Year 1 compare Helsby with Pointe-à-Pierre in Trinidad; Year 3 investigate whether the UK is the same all over and compare the Bay of Naples with North-West England; Year 4 explore Europe; Year 5 investigate North America and compare Wales with the Appalachian Mountains; and Year 6 study South America alongside an enquiry into how rivers and docks influenced UK cities. This progression allows children to revisit important concepts such as place, settlement, climate, physical and human features, rivers, land use, resources and economic activity in increasingly complex contexts.

Locational knowledge:  We believe that children need a secure mental map of the world if they are to make sense of the places they encounter in geography. For this reason, locational knowledge is deliberately taught and revisited throughout every year group, rather than being confined to individual geography units.

Children progressively develop their knowledge from oceans, the countries and seas of the UK and the seven continents in KS1, through to UK coastlines, cities, mountains and counties and increasingly sophisticated world locational knowledge involving latitude, longitude, hemispheres, tropics, poles, time zones and map projections in KS2.

This ensures that children do not simply encounter locations once and forget them; important knowledge is revisited and extended as they move through school.

Fieldwork:  Fieldwork is an integral part of geography at Horn's Mill. Children learn geography both inside and outside the classroom, with fieldwork becoming increasingly sophisticated as they progress through school.

In KS1, children begin by exploring familiar environments such as the school grounds and local area. They learn to observe features, use aerial photographs, create simple maps and keys and describe and plan routes. By Year 2, children apply these skills across three different fieldwork contexts: the school grounds, the local area and an unfamiliar environment.

Throughout KS2, children increasingly collect, measure, present, interpret and evaluate geographical data. Experiences include investigating where plants grow around school, studying changes to rocks in a river, measuring footfall on the local high street, investigating water infiltration, exploring a local geographical issue, measuring river velocity and gathering public opinion about Frodsham Wind Farm.

By Year 6, pupils are expected to draw on a wide range of geographical skills, including surveys, sketch mapping, data presentation and interpreting fieldwork evidence to investigate real geographical questions such as attitudes towards renewable energy and the relationship between land use, water infiltration and flood risk.

This reflects the National Curriculum expectation that pupils progress towards using fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present geographical features using methods including maps, plans, graphs and digital technologies.

Building and remembering knowledge: Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that new learning connects to what children already know. Teachers use regular retrieval opportunities to revisit important knowledge and vocabulary. Prior learning is deliberately activated at the beginning of lessons and children are encouraged to make connections between places, processes and geographical concepts they have encountered previously.

Key geographical vocabulary is explicitly identified within each unit and fieldwork enquiry. Children are taught to understand and use this vocabulary accurately when speaking and writing about geography.

Teachers assess children's understanding throughout learning and adapt teaching to provide appropriate support and challenge, ensuring that our geography curriculum is accessible and ambitious for all pupils.

Reading across the curriculum

Reading plays an important role in developing our children's geographical knowledge. Once children have learned to read, carefully selected fiction and non-fiction texts provide opportunities to encounter geographical ideas in different contexts, develop background knowledge and deepen subject-specific vocabulary.

Our investment in Collins Big Cat titles and our education library service enables children to independently access age-appropriate texts linked to their geographical learning. Whole-class reading opportunities are also deliberately used to reinforce and extend knowledge encountered within the geography curriculum.

Where meaningful connections exist between subjects, these are deliberately exploited. However, geography remains taught as a distinct subject, with its own disciplinary knowledge, vocabulary and geographical skills.

Curriculum Enrichment

Where possible, children experience the geography they study first-hand. Our local area provides rich opportunities for geographical enquiry. Fieldwork takes children beyond the classroom to investigate real places and geographical questions, while carefully chosen visits and experiences provide context for later classroom learning. This begins with exploration of the school environment and local area in KS1 and develops into increasingly independent fieldwork in KS2.

Impact - How do we know our geography curriculum is effective?

The impact of our geography curriculum is seen in children who can remember more, make connections and apply their geographical knowledge and skills to unfamiliar questions and contexts.

We do not judge geographical understanding through one assessment alone. Teachers build a picture of children's learning through retrieval activities, classroom discussion, pupil voice, work in books, fieldwork outcomes and children's ability to apply their knowledge.

We expect our developing geographers to be able to:

• talk confidently about the places and geographical processes they have studied;
• locate increasingly complex places and features using maps, atlases, globes and digital sources;
• use geographical vocabulary accurately;
• make connections between previous and current learning;
• distinguish between and explain human and physical geographical features and processes;
• compare places and explain geographical similarities and differences;
• ask meaningful geographical questions and select appropriate ways to investigate them;
• collect, present and interpret fieldwork data;
• use evidence to draw geographical conclusions and explain their reasoning;
• recognise that people can have different perspectives about geographical issues.

Pupil voice is particularly valuable in helping us determine whether children have developed connected geographical understanding rather than simply remembering isolated facts. We want children to be able to explain not only what they know, but increasingly how they know it, why it matters and how it connects to other geographical learning.

If you have any further enquiries relating to the geography curriculum, please email Mr Lawrie on alawrie@hornsmill.cheshire.sch.uk.