At King William Street CE Primary School , we understand the important role which geography plays in everyday life. We want all of our children to be able to grow up understanding the world around them and the opportunities it offers. Geography promotes an understanding of places and a range of environments. Through their work in geography, we encourage children to learn about their local area and compare their life with that in other regions in the United Kingdom and across the rest of the world.

Our geography curriculum is planned to support skills such as learning how to draw and interpret maps and developing the skills of research, investigation, analysis and problem-solving. Through their growing knowledge and understanding of human geography, children will gain an appreciation of life in other cultures. Children will be regularly encouraged to demonstrate their understanding of the skills and knowledge they have learnt in their geography lessons with the use of questioning and reasoning.

Our curriculum for geography is carefully mapped out to ensure progression and consolidation using a small steps progression document based upon Chris Quigley’s milestones. To ensure high quality subject knowledge and geographical knowledge/skills, some of the units are supported with planning from  The Geographical Association and The Royal Geographical Society.

At King William Street Primary School, we work on a two-year rolling programme for our topic coverage. It allows our children to consolidate key geographical knowledge and skills for each key phase, before moving onto the next. It also provides an opportunity to revisit and remember knowledge across our curriculum and study our chosen topics with a deeper level of understanding. This similarly allows staff to share subject expertise and ensure workload for teachers is supported by allowing sharing of planning.

The geography curriculum follows a simple model:

Threaded through the units are threshold concepts which are the big ideas that the children explore through the topic themes. In geography these are

Investigate places which involves understanding the geographical location of places and their human and physical features.

Investigate patterns which involves understanding the relationships between the physical features of places and the human activity within them, and the appreciation of how the world’s natural resources are used and transported.

Communicate geographically which involves the understanding of geographical representations, vocabulary and techniques.

Alongside these are knowledge categories which indicate the key themes within each topic. In geography these are

techniques which supports the children to find out geographical information and ways to communicate this. This includes fieldwork, map reading and using secondary geographical sources.

location which supports the children to understand geographical location e.g. continents, oceans, capital cities, global position, compass directions.

physical features which supports the children to know the aspects of the environment which are naturally occurring e.g. hills, mountains, rivers, coastlines.

physical processes which supports the children to understand the physical processes which shape the physical features we see e.g. earthquakes, water cycle, rivers

human features which support the children to know the aspects of the environment which are created by humans e.g. urban rural settlements, farming, transport.

human processes which supports the children to understand how human processes influence and are influenced by physical features of the environment, e.g trade, settlements, pollution.

diversity which supports the children to look at how geographically diverse local and global environments are e.g. biomes, population.

Geography is introduced to children when they begin Early Years as they explore features of their own and other environments whilst observing their differences. We want our children to be familiar with their local surroundings through visits and references to the local area. Geography is also taught through cross-curricular learning incorporating aspects of history and science as we want children to link their knowledge and skills together.

Each lesson is identified with the subject heading of geography and an ‘I can’ statement sticker that is taken from each year groups small steps progression document. Each ‘I can’ statement is a small step towards the children achieving the milestone for that subject. These ‘I can’ statements are then highlighted in the children’s books and the attainment is then recorded on the geography part of Sonar.

The  monitoring of this subject takes various forms. A key component is pupil voice alongside their class geography learning journey. Through pupil voice, the children have been able to recall  previous learning, expressed how much they have enjoyed opportunities to explore their local environment and use maps, globes and other resources. School leaders use pupil voice alongside learning journeys to ensure children have the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge fully as well as determine  how the children ‘know more and remember more’.