Our aim is to equip our pupils with knowledge of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments and the relationships between them, as well as deepening their understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

Our curriculum has been designed to develop children’s curiosity and knowledge of their local area and inspire a fascination in the wider world and its diversity, enabling them to become positive citizens within their local community and in a global society. The importance of teaching children about current and future environmental challenges is reflected in our whole focus on sustainability.

Progressive in nature, our curriculum develops knowledge on a local scale and gradually widens to that of a global nature. Pupils develop their contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places and understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world. We expect them to be competent in the geographical skills needed to collect, analyse, interpret and communicate with confidence and clarity. Therefore, fieldwork is an intrinsic element of our curriculum with children given frequent opportunities to explore outdoor areas, the school grounds and places within the local area.

Our geographical enquiries build upon and revisit disciplinary geographical concepts of scale, space, place, interconnections, environment (physical and human processes), environmental impact/sustainability, cultural awareness and diversity. Alongside this, our substantive themes, of trade, sustainability, settlement, climate and diversity are interwoven throughout the curriculum to facilitate deeper understanding and allowing connections to be made.

Implementation

At Howden-le-Wear Primary School we aim to provide a high-quality geography education for all children which meets the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum (2014) and the Early Years foundation stage statutory framework (2024).

EYFS

Children in the Early Years experience geography through “Understanding the World”. They develop their foundational geographical knowledge and explore early geographical concepts of space, environment, place, change, making connections and scale through both adult-led activities and initiating their own explorations of the physical world around them. As part of adult-led learning, we share a wide range of photographs, experiences and stories to support an early understanding of geographical concepts and to ensure substantive themes are explored at an appropriate level and to explore key enquiry questions, such as “What is it like outside?” or “Where can I travel to?”.  Our EYFS curriculum supports children in understanding their own, ‘everyday geographies’, where substantive themes are rooted in children seeing their personal relationship with the people and places that they experience every day.  The rich geographical experiences that their daily lives provide as a launchpad for active learning, stimulating conversations and exploring key geographical themes such as weather, settlements and sustainability. Running alongside this are our engaging and enabling environments.  Fieldwork opportunities are provided within the EYFS outdoor areas, wider school grounds and within the village of Howden-Le-Wear and beyond, with planned activities including termly “Welly Walks” and weekly Forest School sessions. Here children are able to explore developing their early spatial skills through making their own maps, talking about and recording their own observations and develop their understanding and use of geographical vocabulary. Continuous and enhanced provision in the EYFS indoor and outdoor classroom areas allow children to explore, practise and apply their early enquiry skills in a play-based way supported by knowledgeable adults. Experiences such as role-play based on their first-hand experiences, use of small-world resources, hands on exploration of photographs, literature, maps and other resources combined with high quality conversations ensure our children are confident in their learning.

Key Stage 1 and 2

The Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum is based on the programme of study for Geography in the National Curriculum.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage One, key themes such as ‘settlement’, ‘climate’ and ‘trade’ are explored as pupils carry out fieldwork around the school grounds and the nearby town of Crook to develop knowledge of their locality and enhance locational awareness. By answering questions like, ‘Where can the Naughty Bus take us around the school and grounds?” and “What can I find in Crook?”, they become familiar with simple compass directions and locational and directional language along with being able to describe the location of features and routes on a map and use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features. Alongside this, they devise simple maps and use and construct basic symbols in a key. They also identify seasonal weather patterns of our local area compared to other places in the United Kingdom. The substantive themes of ‘settlement’ and ‘diversity’ are also examined when children carry out the enquiry, ‘How are Crook and Pointe-a-Pierre the same or different?’ comparing their local area to one area outside of Europe, using a fiction book from author Floella Benjamin. Learning expands to studies of the United Kingdom in which pupils become familiar the countries, capital cities and surrounding seas. Focus then shifts to the wider world where we learn to name and locate the world’s continents and oceans and identify the location of hot and cold places using maps, atlases and globes.

Key Stage 2

In Year 3 and 4, pupils build on prior learning revisiting knowledge gained in KS1 surrounding the UK, they use maps, atlases and satellite images explore geographical regions, identify physical characteristics and topographical features such as hills and mountains. Following this, children familiarise themselves with UK cities and examine how they have changed over time. The study of our North East is used to develop knowledge of the varied human and physical geography of the region and introduces new learning about rivers and involves carrying out a local river study. The focus on Europe, concentrates on environment regions, key physical features, countries and major cities through the enquiry, ‘Is all of Europe the same?’. Pupils then visit prior knowledge of the North East of England to allow them to identify similarities and differences with Campania, Italy. As part of learning here, children also explore volcanoes and earthquakes and the impact they have on humans.

In Year 5 and 6, all substantive concepts are revisited and explored in greater depth. Pupils build upon learning surrounding naming and locating UK cities in Year 3 and 4 and acquire new knowledge of counties which ties in with learning in history focused on Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The focus on South America has pupils working out if there is more to South America than just a big rainforest. Children design and complete a fieldwork enquiry in the local area to see how Howden-Le-Wear has changed over time to consolidate geography skills gained throughout their geographical learning journey. They then seek to answer the enquiry question, ‘Is there more to North America than just the USA?’ by learning to identify position and significance of latitude and longitude, exploring the physical and human geography of North America before carrying out a regional study into the geographical similarities and differences that exist between the North East of England and the Great Lakes. The sustainability theme ends the Key Stage 2 geography curriculum with a study on how natural events on Earth can affect us.

Throughout the Howden-Le-Wear Geography curriculum pupils carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing this, they ask geographical questions, and use geographical skills and resources, such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs and ICT. Children will develop geographical enquiry skills, including asking geographical questions, collecting and recording information and identifying different views. They will acquire the appropriate practical skills associated with Geography, including using suitable vocabulary, fieldwork techniques and maps, plans and atlases. Pupils will use secondary sources of information with accuracy, including aerial photographs, satellite images, etc.

Our Key Teaching Principles:

• Key enquiry questions/sub-enquiry questions are at the forefront of planning and delivery of lessons.

• Substantive themes and disciplinary concepts run through the curriculum from EYFS to Y6.

• Teachers refer back to what children have learnt in the past to ensure knowledge becomes embedded in long term memory.

• Teachers working alongside the Geography Subject Leader to plan lessons and fieldwork opportunities and expose children to a variety of resources, including atlases, maps, compasses, graphs, fiction and non-fiction texts, photographs and websites.

• Lessons are adapted to cater for all children including SEND.

• Marking and feedback relates to geographical knowledge and understanding.

• Any displays or working walls and continuous provision areas aim to support, develop, embed and celebrate geographical skills, knowledge and vocabulary.

• Teachers use assessment to check pupils understanding in order to inform identify misconceptions and inform future teaching and learning.

Impact

Knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more are indicators of progress. Learning should build towards answering enquiry questions and children should be prepared for their next stage of learning. Teachers follow the Geography progression of skills documents and key learning on planning documents as tools to ensure any gaps in learning identified and responded to. Evidence to support teacher judgements is gained from formative assessment, discussion with pupils and evidence in books. Summative assessments are recorded on end of unit assessment sheets.

As children progress throughout the school, they develop a deep knowledge, understanding an appreciation of their local area and its place within the wider geographical context. Geographical understanding, as well as children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is supported throughout the curriculum. Children learn about careers related to geography from members of the local and wider community, with specialist skills and knowledge (for example during The Festival of Fieldwork, Science Week, Enterprise Week and Aspiration Week) and this ensures that they are well prepared for the next steps of their education.

Our planning can be found in the document below:
Geography at Howden 2024-25