Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School & Nursery

Purpose of study

“The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exist across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge the divide and bring people together.” Barack Obama

Our Geography curriculum is designed to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Through the teaching and learning of geography, children grow a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and its place in it. Children develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas, which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Our Geography curriculum helps to develop the pupils’ reading skills.

Our Geography education inspires pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. The teaching equips 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. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Intent

Our Geography curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.

Our curriculum for Geography ensures that all pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – 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 and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time;
are competent in the geographical skills needed;
collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes;
interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS);
communicate geographical information in various ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.