Geography
At Greenlands Primary School all children, including those who are disadvantaged and children who have SEND learn a variety of geographical topics across the school.
Geography underpins a lifelong conversation about the earth as the home of humankind
- The Geography Society
What Geography Looks Like At Greenlands Primary School
The teaching of Geography at Greenlands Primary School is underpinned by the National Curriculum and the Greenlands Knowledge and Skills Progression Document. Knowledge and Skills have been arranged within subject specific themes.
Vocabulary for each topic is identified and explicitly taught to address the recognised ‘word gap’ that exists for many of the children that attend Greenlands Primary School. The regular revisiting of previous learning will enable children to know more and remember more.
Concepts and Themes Running through Geography
Subject Specific Concepts
- Space and Place
- Scale and connection
- Proximity and distance
- Relational thinking
Themes
- Cities, countries and continents
- Rainforests
- Rivers
- Coasts
- Mountains
- Earthquakes
- Volcanoes
- Biomes
- Climate zones
Geographical Enquiry Skills
- Direction / Location
- Drawing Maps
- Using Maps
- Representation
- Scale / Distance
- Perspective
- Map Knowledge
- Locational knowledge
- Human and physical geography
- Place knowledge
Whole school overview
Early Years Foundation Stage
Foundation Stage geography is where children begin to gain a wider experience of the world around them. Children learn through first-hand experiences about the diversity of creatures, people, plants and objects in their natural environment. They investigate change in the seasons and the weather, and explore the power of rain and wind. This gives children a good foundation for their science work in year 1 when they complete an investigation over time about the weather.
Over the year, children explore their familiar environment, the place where they live and environments which are significant to them. They make simple comparisons between their house and the houses of others and between environments and answer questions such as ‘How are our houses similar and different?’. They are encouraged to comment and ask questions to find out more and to develop their understanding of the things they see. They record their findings, through drawing, writing, and modelling.
Key Stage 1
Geography is taught regularly across the year to enable children to revisit geographical concepts and revisit previous learning.
Year 1
Across the year, children investigate the changes in season and the weather; recording their findings in a class floorbook. This runs alongside their on-going Science Unit 'Seasonal Change'. This the gives the children the opportunity to extend and embed their knowledge over time. In the Spring Term, children will conduct a Local Area investigation. This encompasses our school and grounds and the human and physical features of the local area. This is real life for pupils and something to which they can easily relate. Children compare different areas of the school and explore the different uses of the rooms. They then move onto looking at the area surrounding the school and the features which are physical and those which are human.Children then widen their geographical understanding further by investigating the four countries of the UK and answer the question ‘Where in the world do I live?’. During this unit children compare the position of the four countries using maps, and identify significant cities of the countries of the UK and investigate the diversity of these countries.
Year 2
Children begin their geographical learning in Autumn 1 by investigating hot and cold places of the world. During this topic, children will learn that the world is made up of many countries and that these are grouped together in continents and that these are surrounded by seas and oceans. Children will learn that the Equator is an invisible line that runs around the centre of the Earth and that places are usually hot when they are near the Equator. The North and South Poles (the places furthest away from the Equator) are cold and children will compare and contrast these place using human and physical features.
In Summer Term, children investiagte the island of Madagascar, exploring the physical geography of the island. They will compare and contrast a rural area to a city whilst looking at the climate of the rainforest that is situated there.This builds on to the learning about weather and the seasons in Reception and Year 1.
Key Stage 2
Year 3
Children continue to build on the knowledge and skills acquired in KS1 by exploring Climate Zones in the Spring Term. They will learn about polar, temperate, arid, tropical, mountainous and Mediterranean climates. They will also look at the difference between weather and climate and identify the different climate zones.
In the first part of the Summer Term, children will explore Mountains. Through this unit, they will explore how mountains are formed, where the significant mountain ranges are across the United Kingdom and the highest mountains in the United Kingdom.They will broaden their knowledge by investigating the major mountain ranges of the world and complete a case study of the Alps.
In the second part of the Summer Term, children will investigate North America exploring the languages spoken, physical features including Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and the Mississippi River. They will understand the vastness of the countries that make up North America.
Year 4
In the Autumn Term, children continue to build on the knowledge and skills acquired in year 3 by exploring Vocanoes and Earthquakes. This builds on the children's understanding of mountains and explores the formation of volcanoes and the Pacific Ring of Fire. They will explore earthquakes and how earthquakes occur and how these are measured using the Magnitude Scale. They will explore the human cost of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
Summer Term will cover a study of coasts in detail as a key geographical feature. The children learn about the significant human and physical features of a coastal region and how these features are connected. They will identify the coastline on a map of the world and the United Kingdom.
Year 5
Children will learn about the features of a river, the water cycle and how a river is formed in their first Year 5 unit. They will explore how rivers are used by humans for a variety of reasons depending on the location of the river. They will investigate the loaction and names of some rivers of the United Kingdom and the world.
The second Year 5 geography topic focusses on South America and the location of the Amazon Rainforest. They will investigate the city of Rio de Janeiro, looking human and physical features. They will learn about the flora and fauna of the rainforest and the effects of deforestation on the environment and the lives of people and animals of the rainforest.
Year 6
Children build on the knowledge of the United Kingdom learnt in KS1 to develop their understanding of the regions of the United Kingdom. They will investigate the changes that the Industrial Revolution created as people migrated from the countryside into the cities and how cities over time changed due to the industries they housed.
Following an overview of Europe as a continent, children will then carry out an in-depth study of a European country. Through independent research, they will identify the human and physical features of the country including: size and population, climate, location, exports and idustries and the main sources of energy.
