Geography

Our knowledge rich geography curriculum is designed to equip pupils with deep geographical knowledge about their immediate surroundings and the wider world. We want pupils to understand the world around them and their place in it through the study of human and physical geography. Pupils will ask questions about their world, explore and appreciate places and cultures and now, more than ever, make the choice to care for the planet.

We aim to achieve this by delivering discrete, focussed blocks of geography to reduce cognitive load and allow pupils to immerse themselves fully. Our curriculum is underpinned by carefully sequenced progressions of substantive geographical knowledge within the three main strands of the National Curriculum:

• Locational Knowledge
• Place Knowledge
• Human and Physical Geography

We have made careful choices within these strands to ensure areas, regions and locations studied are relevant to our pupils and to create links between our local area, our city, our country and the wider world. Within each strand we have prioritised key substantive component knowledge that builds towards understanding larger composite concepts. This key knowledge is revisited through carefully planned retrieval activities to ensure it is stored and activated in the long term memory.

• Skills and Fieldwork

As well as gaining key knowledge about the world and its inhabitants, pupils learn the disciplinary skills of working geographically. They use map skills to find out where different features are located, make comparisons between countries and landscapes and learn how to collect, organise and analyse data.

Geography starts in Early Years, where pupils learn about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. Pupils talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They use a variety of physical resources to engage in open ended activities based on their own interests. The high-quality provision that underpins our Early Years setting allows great opportunities for the children to develop their knowledge and understanding of the World around them.

Every year group will have the opportunity to conduct fieldwork including ‘Forest school’ sessions and local surveys around St Anne's and the surrounding areas. Our intention is for all of our geographers to leave our school having gained and deep geographical knowledge and practical, geographical skills that they can use throughout the rest of their lives.