Warwick Road Primary School

Geography

At Warwick Road Primary School, we aim to inspire a curiosity and fascination for the world and all who live in it that will remain with the children long after they have left Warwick Road. We believe that a strong and rich geography curriculum helps to develop an understanding and knowledge of the link between people and places. Children are encouraged to think about and question the world around them, enabling them to develop a greater understanding of their location and how it fits within the wider context of locational knowledge of the world. Therefore, we use the Kapow scheme of learning to apply an enquiry-based approach to the teaching and learning of geography, in order to inspire our children and to encourage them to question and investigate the world around them.  We use the National Curriculum to structure our Line of Enquiry topics where children investigate big questions such as ‘What is it like to live here?’, ‘Why is our world amazing?’ and ‘Where does our energy come from?’ which allow children to investigate and answer more targeted questions as geographers.

What makes a successful geographer?

• An excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like.
• An excellent understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected and how much human and physical environments are interrelated.
• An extensive base of geographical knowledge and vocabulary.
• Fluency in complex, geographical enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
• The ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
• Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity as shown in interpretations and representations of the subject matter.
• Highly developed and frequently utilised fieldwork and other geographical skills and techniques.
• A passion for and commitment to the subject, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the people who live there.
• The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current and contemporary issues in society and the environment.

How and what we learn at Warwick Road 

Our geography progression document describes the development of our children’s knowledge, understanding and skills over time with common threads that children develop in their journey through school, including locational knowledge, place knowledge, physical and human features and geographical skills and fieldwork.

Children begin developing their geographical curiosity and understanding of the world around them in EYFS. Through high quality continuous provision and planned experiences, children learn about the natural world and different people, cultures and communities.

Our geographers continue their learning journey in Key Stage 1 by using fieldwork and observation skills alongside maps and atlases focusing on their locality before comparing it to other locations around the world. Children develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They develop basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their awareness.

In Key Stage Two, children extend their locational and place knowledge to include Europe, North America and South America. Children develop knowledge of the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features.

We aim for children to leave Warwick Road as global citizens who are aware of how they interact with the world to create innovative and sustainable change for the future.

Subject LTP

Enhanced curriculum experiences

At Warwick Road, in order to enhance the curriculum for geography children access the local area on a regular basis; by making connections through all the different curriculum areas and have access to a local map. With this map they navigate and apply their geographical skills when accessing the local area.  Below are just some examples of the additional experiences on offer for our children:

• Educational visits to enhance their cultural capital: where applicable, links to geography will be made to develop the children’s topical learning. 
• Outdoor learning opportunities with the curriculum teaching and learning should plan for outdoor learning opportunities within geography lessons termly. This may be using the school grounds, local area or wider community to apply and explore their subject specific task.  
• Children will access their local environment to get a hands-on experience in their learning. Children will become more aware of their local environment as they progress through their geographical education and will learn to use a map specific for their areas of enquiry.  
• Geography competition
• Geography after-school club 

Knowledge organisers 

Here are some examples of our Knowledge Organisers for Geography:

• Nursery Who am I?
• Reception  People Who Help Us.
• Year 1  What is it like here?
• Year 3 Why do people live near volcanoes?
• Year 4  Are all settlements the same?
• Year 5 Why do oceans matter?
• Year 6 Where does our energy come from?

Progression of skills maps/documents 

Parent support

Exciting geography news and activities: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/category/discover/geography/

https://www.geography.org.uk/Geographical-investigations-around-the-house-garden-local-area-and-school-grounds

http://www.travel-images.com/#gsc.tab=0

Mapping:

A fun website with games and support for reading and using maps: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/

Search for local street maps and explore your local area: https://www.streetmap.co.uk/

Geography policy

Leadership:

Mrs Z Katharada is our Lead Geographer, who you can speak to if you would like to find out more about how we teach our Geography Curriculum at Warwick Road Primary School.

Mrs R Khan is our Lead Geography Governor.