‘The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world’

President Barack Obama

The road map below is to show the Geography curriculum as it progresses through the school from Reception to Year 6.

During EYFS, Children will know about similarities and differences in relation to places.  They will be able to talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments may vary from one to another.

In KS1 geography, children will develop knowledge about the World, the United Kingdom and their locality. In Year 1 the children will explore their local area and learn about seaside towns by studying Burnham seafront. In Year 2 the children will build on this and will extend their learning to include the closest city, Bristol. In KS2 children will be able to make links and build on previous learning to extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America.  Children will be taught geography skills: to use world maps, atlases, globes, digital/computer mapping and compasses.

Children will be taught key geographical knowledge, skills and vocabulary through sequences of coherent and connected lessons.

Concepts like physical and human geography will be unpicked through enquiry questions, e.g. ‘What’s around me?’, ‘What made Weston super?’, ‘Who is the greatest explorer?’, ‘Can things grow in a desert?’, ‘Is the natural world dangerous?’, ‘How green is our planet?’, ‘Should we adapt?’ Children will be taught specific, technical, vocabulary: latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian, as well as key topographical features. Children will be given opportunities to use geographical and fieldwork skills during first-hand opportunities in the local area. for example,  map reading and using a compass for orienteering, to give learning a context.