Geography
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Geography
Our definition of geography:
KS1: Geography is the land and water of our planet, the people living on it and how the people and the planet interact with each other.
KS2: Geography is the physical properties of the Earth’s surface, the human societies spread across it and how each influences and changes the other.
For the four elements: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human & physical geography and geographical skills, these are all integrated throughout each unit.
6 key questions
Where is this place? What is this place like? Why is this place as it is? How is this place connected to other places? How is this place changing? What would it feel like to be in this place?
The 6 key questions help develop geographical thinking and are used extensively throughout lessons. The children know what these questions are so that by the end of KS2, they are using them to begin to structure their own investigations.
Progression of vocabulary, map and fieldwork skills
Work outside the classroom – map and fieldwork skills - have a high profile
The procedural knowledge (map skills and fieldwork skills) have as high a profile as the substantive knowledge (the facts). This is through classroom based activity and also work done in the school grounds, village and on trips further afield.
There are links in each unit to knowledge in previous and future years
The main connections are through ‘Rivers’ and ‘Trade and Industry’
Using enquiry questions
These allow opportunities for investigating, problem solving and debating such as ‘How do the Polar lands of the Arctic and Antarctic compare? Which would you rather visit?’
It is key that the children understand how interconnected these things are in geography.
Focusing on the ‘interconnectedness’ of the subject
Knowing what the human and physical characteristics of a place are, and how these features are interdependent, bringing about spatial variations and changes over time
Geography Curriculum design:
Each year group has one main unit. This is taught in depth as a block to immerse the children in the subject for a rich experience.
Skills are revisited throughout the year to consolidate. Some locational, human and physical work is taught to give geographical context to some topics such as history and science.
KS1 start with what they know – the immediate locality of Holmes Chapel. We then move further afield to the rest of the UK and to Chembakolli for a contrasting locality in a non-European country.
KS2 Year 3 day visit Macclesfield Forest (linked to forests & rainforests), Year 4 to the Crowden Valley (linked to rivers and coasts), Year 5 as part of their residential to the Conway Centre visit the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia (mountains). Year 6 then come full circle. Having started with the UK in Y1, we return to the UK but with greater depth and sophistication.