Geography

• Location and place
• Human and physical features
• Mapping, including directional skills
• Fieldwork
• The environment and sustainability
• Settlement and land use
• Weather and climate

Importance to Bearwood Primary and Nursery pupils and local links:

At Bearwood we believe that our Geography curriculum should capture children’s interests and allow them to explore the fascinating world we live in. We do this through exploring our local area initially and expanding out to the wider world as children progress through the school. Our aim is to inspire curiosity and fascination about the world, equip them with deep knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and understand the human and physical processes that have shaped and formed our landscape. Where possible, topics are linked with the local area, visitors or with the experiences that the children have whilst at Bearwood Primary and Nursery School.

The Geography curriculum aims to inspire a passion for Geography and equip children with the essential knowledge they will need to take this with them throughout their education. This begins with EYFS where children start to explore location, through the study of where they live and their immediate environment. This supports their learning of key concepts throughout Key Stages 1 and 2.

The Geography units have been carefully so that the extent of children’s knowledge of the world around them continually grows, whilst always looking to deepen understanding of content all the way from EYFS to Year 6. In addition, children will learn about a wide range of human and physical features, from villages, towns, transport and trade to beaches, rivers and volcanoes. The curriculum aims to introduce the children to a wide variety of Geographical concepts to spark their interest and show the true expanse of this fascinating subject.

Our Geography curriculum is taught by the class teacher, who will first revisit prior learning. We return to previous learning, for pupils to retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory and build on this, with the introduction of new knowledge. This is through an approach of clear modelling and scaffolding of new concepts. The pupils will then practise applying this knowledge in a group or individual task and have opportunities to deepen their understanding with reasoning and explanation.

We use key concepts that are thread through our Geography curriculum, from Year R to Year 6, to build on prior learning and support pupils making strong links in their knowledge.