Geography

Geography

The National Curriculum

The National Curriculum states:

‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time’ (DfE, 2013).

Geography Lessons at Sutton-at-Hone Primary School

Geography is taught across the school in classes and therefore has a range of abilities throughout each lesson. Our curriculum is carefully planned to engage and excite all our learners. Our long term and medium term plans map out the themes covered in each term by each key stage. All classes aim to deliver Geography in a cross-curricular way wherever possible and the implementation of Geography will depend on the termly topic for different year groups. This also enables the children to apply their geographical skills and knowledge to other area of the curriculum. The children are taught the following four areas in their Geography lessons: locational knowledge; place knowledge; human and physical geography; geographical skills and fieldwork.

50 Things Before I Leave Sutton-at-Hone Primary School

Geography enriches the curriculum and children should be given the opportunity to embark on experiences from the ’50 Things’ list with their parents or carers. Examples of these experiences are reading a map to get somewhere and going on a hike or climbing a mountain.

The Importance of Geography

It is important for children to understand and navigate our planet and the places we share with others. Geography helps children to explore their identity and how they relate to others. It also teaches children how they can contribute to building a better world, which respects the environment that sustains us all. Children are taught important skills, such as using maps, atlases, globes and compasses. In the future, there are many careers that your child may be interested in, which they will need a good knowledge of Geography for, such as a travel advisor, a teacher, a landscape architect or an environmental health officer.

How can you help at home?

You can support your child at home by helping them to explore our planet by learning about the physical and human features. You can teach your child how to look after our environment and be responsible for the future of our planet, for example by recycling and not wasting our resources. There are lots of ideas and activities on the following websites: https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earth/ (Google Earth), www.placecheck.info/ and https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/teacher-category/geography/