Geography at Our School    

At our school, the intent for Geography is to develop children’s understanding of locational knowledge, place knowledge and human and physical geography, alongside essential geographical skills, to widen their understanding of the world. Due to the school’s context, children often have limited awareness of their immediate locality and how it connects to the UK and the wider world. There, a strong focus is placed on understanding where they live, their local area, the UK, and how the UK fits into a global context.  

During the Autumn Term, the focus is on location. Children begin with familiar places such as their home, street, and school before progressing to understanding where they are in the world. They develop secure knowledge of the UK, including its counties, cities, coasts, rivers, hills, and mountains, as well as key geographical concepts such as longitude, latitude, the equator, hemispheres, and time zones. Prior learning is revisited and built upon each year to ensure children develop a strong, cumulative understanding of the UK and it’s features.  

In the Spring Term, the focus shifts to place. Children apply their understanding of the UK to study places beyond their immediate environment. They explore the United Kingdom in more detail before making comparisons with places in Europe and the wider world, including Kenya, Campania in Italy, Brazil, and polar regions. These comparisons help children understand similarities and differences between locations and deepen their place knowledge through meaningful global contexts.  

The Summer Term focuses on human and physical Geography. Children develop their understanding of weather and climate, natural processes, and physical features such as volcanoes, earthquakes, the water cycle, climate zones, biomes, and vegetation belts. Human Geography is explored through units on settlements and land use, enabling children to understand how physical geography influences where people live. Learning is carefully sequenced so that prior knowledge from earlier terms is revisited and extended, for example linking rivers and coasts to the water cycle or the equator to climate zones.  

By the time children the school and move into KS3, they will be confident in their locational knowledge locally, nationally and globally, able to make meaningful comparisons between places, and equipped with a secure understanding of both human and physical geography.