Geography
Intent
The learning and teaching of geography at St Paul’s aims to provide an opportunity for children to understand, appreciate and celebrate the rich diversity of the world we live in.
It draws on their intrinsic curiosity about the world that they live in and allows them to ask questions about the natural world. The children learn to think about their place in the global community.
The key aims for geography at St Paul’s are:
- To inspire children’s curiosity and fascination in the diverse world around them
- To develop an understanding of their role as global citizens and their responsibility as stewards of the Earth
- To equip children with knowledge about a variety of places, cultures and natural and human environments around the world
- To develop children’s competence in key geographical skills including: collecting and analysing data; interpreting maps and other geographical sources; and communicating geographical information.
Implementation
Geography is taught at St Paul’s through a cross-curricular approach. It is not always exclusively delivered in stand-alone lessons but is usually planned as part of a larger unit, tying in learning from a variety of different curriculum subjects. Our geography curriculum is designed to inspire pupil’s curiosity about the world around them by providing memorable first-hand experiences and broad subject knowledge, guided by their own interests, the National Curriculum and our progression of skills document. This document focusses on the development of four key strands: human and physical geography; place knowledge; locational knowledge; and fieldwork skills.
Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
The children will begin to develop an understanding of the world around them with particular reference to their local environment. They will have an opportunity to explore their local area, asking questions and developing their observational and mapping skills. As they progress through Key Stage 1, this learning will expand to the wider world and they will learn about a non-European country. They will be encouraged to compare different countries around the world to the UK and gain an appreciation for the varied cultures that make up our world. At this stage, the intention is to give them a broad overview of a variety of countries.
Key Stage 2
The pupils will have a more in depth look at different countries around the world, including the UK. Their place knowledge and geographical and fieldwork skills will act as a springboard to study in detail the human and physical geography of different regions within these countries. Building on their work within Key Stage 1, they will continue to make comparisons back to regions within the UK. They will develop an appreciation for the wide variety within the geography of any given country and begin to challenge stereotypes. For example, within the study of Egypt, care is taken to ensure that they are exposed to the highly developed cities as well as the more familiar images of deserts. They will also begin to explore the impact of human activity on the environment, covered in topics such as ‘Rainforests’ and ‘Blue Planet’.
Impact
The geography curriculum at St Paul’s provides them with the geographical skills and knowledge to enable full access to the Key Stage 3 curriculum. It ensures that the children are equipped to be local and global citizens and ready to become active, respectful and responsible members in a multi-cultural world. It widens their horizons by allowing them to see a world beyond their own.