Through enquiry led learning children will ……

• Learn about our local area, the UK and the wider world and identifying the key features of them.
• Explore concepts through geographical enquiry by asking and answering questions
• Note similarities and differences from across continents and countries.
• Explore key aspects of our climate in the UK and comparing this to other locations around the world.
• Look at continuity and change to understand how the world has developed around us
• Understand the cause of significant events and the consequences thereafter
• Learn how to use resources (such as maps, atlases, compasses, aerial photographs and plans) to undertake fieldwork activities.
• Build an understanding of key geographical vocabulary to support language development.

This is achieved through activities such as:

• Going on educational visits in the local area and places further afield in the UK.
• Working with a range of resources to discover more about our local area and the world.
• Creating learning journeys as a class that explore lines of enquiry.
• Linking our geography work at school to the wider community so that pupils can draw upon experiences to link with their learning.

In Early Years, geography is related to ‘Knowledge and Understanding of the World’ as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and it is about the children beginning to understand about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

In Key Stage 1, geography is about developing knowledge, skills and understanding relating to the children’s own experiences with a large focus on understanding the United Kingdom and the local community around them. This acts as the foundation so that when the children reach Key Stage 2, they have enough knowledge and experience to be able to learn about the wider world and more abstract geographical concepts, such as the position and significance of latitude, longitude, time zones.

In Key Stage 2, geography is about developing knowledge, skills and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. Pupils will begin to identify the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should also begin to develop their use of geographical terminology to support their understanding of these aspects.