Geography

Geography at St. Anne’s Catholic Primary School

Geography Lead is Miss Turvey

EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage at St Anne’s is designed to foster children’s desire to learn about the world around them whilst giving them the foundations of their geographical skills and knowledge. Hands on experiences in the classroom and outdoor learning environment give them the opportunity to use basic locational and prepositional vocabulary which will underpin their understanding of important geographical concepts in later years. Children are exposed to different ways of life, different places and different people in order to understand some of the similarities and differences that exist between themselves and the rest of the world. They are encouraged to pay attention to the people and natural world around them, make observations, ask questions and suggest ways of answering them.

Intent

Geography at St Anne’s inspires children to have a sense of curiosity and wonder about the world. It enables children to understand their surroundings whilst encouraging them to look beyond the environment in which they live and be inquisitive about the diversity of the world and the people who live in it. Through engaging lessons that aim to challenge and support all pupils, children develop their knowledge of place and location, human and physical features, the changing landscapes and natural processes of the world. Children acquire important skills through the hands-on use of maps, globes and atlases, specialist equipment and fieldwork whilst equipping them with the geographical vocabulary needed to express their findings and go on to become confident and passionate geographers.

Implementation

At St Anne’s we teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. As a school, we aim to provide a language rich environment for children and ensuring children are confident using geographical vocabulary is an important part of our curriculum.
The curriculum is designed so that children start with ‘themselves’, their school and their local area before looking outwards to study the countries of the United Kingdom as they progress through Key Stage 1. By the end of Key Stage 1 they have a clear understanding of the world map, the seven continents and five oceans. This gives them a strong foundation of locational and place knowledge from which they can build on in Key Stage 2. Throughout Key Stage 2 children gain more specific knowledge and skills by studying a range of places.
All geography lessons at St Anne’s aim to have some element of enquiry which explicitly teaches children the skill of asking and answering relevant geographical questions using sophisticated vocabulary correctly
A celebration of cultural diversity is evident at St Anne’s through our annual Cultures Week in which children get the opportunity to take part in a range of activities that expose them to different food, languages, music, dance and art from around the world.

Impact

As a result of our well planned and competently delivered geography curriculum, children leave St Anne’s with:

an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like
an excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated
an extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary
an understanding of complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques
a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there