Geography

Geography at John Perryn

 

Intent  

 

At John Perryn, we offer a geography curriculum that is ambitious, well-sequenced and that inspires all children’s curiosity and fascination to learn more about the world around them.

This will help children to deepen their understanding of physical and human geographical processes, and increase their curiosity and fascination for the world they live in. The knowledge children will be taught has been identified in each year group, each unit and each lesson.

As children work through the curriculum, they will know and understand more about the local area, the UK, Europe and the world. Building geographical knowledge and understanding in a way that builds on children’s prior knowledge allows them to make meaningful connections and gain an understanding of how our world is connected.

Children will learn about key geographical concepts such as place, space, the environment and interconnection.

 

Implementation

Our geography curriculum allows children to develop their knowledge of substantive geographical concepts such as place, space, scale, interdependence, environmental interactions, exploring patterns, cultural understanding and diversity, sustainable development and globalisation. The children learn the disciplinary skills of being a geographer throughout the curriculum raising geographical questions, reading maps, using positional language and collecting, recording and analysing evidence.

The series of lessons have an over-arching question that children will be able to answer at the end of the unit. Each lesson has its own individual question that the children will answer building up their body of knowledge and using their geographical skills.  

Children begin their journeys as geographers in the Foundation Stage by understanding where they live and how different people live different lives around the world. They furhter develop this in Key Stage 1 by undertaking fieldwork in the local area bordered by Long Drive, the A40 and Old Oak Common Lane. This allows them to develop a sense of space which they can use as a base to compare and contrast with other places as they move through the school.

Key Stage 1 children learn about the UK, the seven continents and five oceans and how humans adapt their behaviours to changing weather patterns across the globe. They also compare East Acton with an area of Cape Town and study some of the countries of Northern Europe.

Having developed a secure understanding of the human and physical geographic features of their local area in Key Stage 1, children in Year 3 use this to compare life in East Acton with a contrasting village in the UK. They will then study the South West region of the UK focussing on tourism and the interaction of people and place. They will then use this knowledge to understand why people travel to the Lazio region of Italy linking with their knowledge of Romans in history.

Year 4 focus on physical geography, learning about rivers and rainforests and how humans have adapted their behaviours to the different habitats. They also use their geographical skills to compare Poland and Bulgaria. Year 5 continue looking at the interaction between physical and human geography through mountains, extreme weather conditions (with a focus on North America) and earthquakes and volcanoes. Year 6 continue their geographical education by focussing on wider geographical issues such as the way that maps have shaped our society, the impact of human action on the physical environment and what we can do about it and globalisation and fair trade.

 

 

Geography Whole School Overview