Geography at New Park

At New Park Primary School, we are dedicated to preparing our children for the next steps in their school career and to opening the doors to the wider world by providing a purposeful and empowering curriculum. Through the geography curriculum, we wish to broaden our children’s horizons by helping them to understand the community in which we live, the impact we can have on our environment and the relationship between nations. Within our geography curriculum, our ambition is to use enquiry-based learning to help deepen the children’s understanding of the world and to ignite their curiosity. Alongside this deep understanding, we aim to also provide children with skills that can be transferred across the curriculum and outside of school. 

Subject Aims

A high-quality geography education should stimulate a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with children for the rest of their lives. The teaching of geography at New Park Primary School will equip learners with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, combined 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 to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of 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.

Subject Content

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge:

• name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans.
• name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas.

Place knowledge:

• understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country.
• Human and physical geography.
• identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles.
• use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:
• key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather.
• key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop.

Geographical skills and fieldwork:

• use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage.
• use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map.
• use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key.
• use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.

Key stage 2

Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge:

• locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities.
• name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time.
• identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night).

Place knowledge:

• understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America.

Human and physical geography:

• describe and understand key aspects of:
• physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle.
• human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water.

Geographical skills and fieldwork:

• use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
• use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world.
• use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies. 

Opening Worlds 

In Year 3 and Year 4, we follow a knowledge-rich humanities programme for teaching Geography. The programme meets and substantially exceeds the demand of the National Curriculum for Geography. The ambitious curriculum is characterised by strong vertical sequencing within subjects (so that pupils gain security in a rich, broad vocabulary through systematic introduction, sustained practice and deliberate revisiting) and by intricate horizontal and diagonal connections across terms and subjects. 

Features of Opening Worlds:

• thoroughness in knowledge-building, achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing;
• global and cultural breadth, embracing wide diversity across ethnicity, gender, region and community;
• rapid impact on literacy through systematic introduction and revisiting of new vocabulary;
• subject-specific disciplinary rigour, teaching pupils to interpret and argue, to advance and weigh claims, and to understand the distinctive ways in which subject traditions enquire and seek truth;
• well-told stories: beautifully written narratives and the nurture of teachers’ own story-telling art;
• a highly inclusive approach, secured partly through common knowledge (giving access to common language) and partly through thorough high-leverage teaching that is pacey, oral, interactive and fun;
• efficient use of lesson time, blending sharp pace, sustained practice and structured reflection;
• rapid improvement of teachers’ teaching through systematic training in the Opening Worlds evidence-informed, high-leverage techniques.

Resources

We use a range of resources to support our geography teaching at New Park. As well as a selection of globes and atlases, our pupils have access to Digimaps for Schools. This is a mapping service which supports our teaching of locational and place knowledge, human and physical geography and fieldwork.

Extra-Curricular Activities

New Park is currently taking part in the My School, My Planet project with the Learning Through Landscapes charity. Through this project, 20 of our Year 6 pupils have been working with a Project Officer to respond to the impacts of climate change in their area by making meaningful, environmentally friendly changes to their school grounds for the benefit of local wildlife, as well as the wider school community. Through creating cultural maps of their neighbourhood and sharing cultural knowledge amongst families, faith groups, and community gardens, pupils also learn about their own cultural heritage and that of their local community members.