Geography

VISION

"Earth is our home in space, a unique speck in the unimaginably vast cosmos and the only planet in our solar system capable of supporting live as we know it. This little blue planet provides us with all our needs today and all of our actions will influence its future survival.  At Sholing Junior School, through our geography curriculum, we aim to develop a curiosity and fascination for our planet and a life-long love for the local area and the world in which we live".

Our geography teaching equips pupils with knowledge about places and people, resources in the environment and an understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes that have shaped our landscape and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the framework to explain how the Earth’s features are shaped, interconnected and change over time.  We also want the children to develop geographical skills: collecting and analysing data, using maps, atlases, globes, aerial photographs and digital mapping to name, identify and locate countries, continents and oceans. We want the children to be able to communicate their learning in a variety of ways including sketch maps with a key and diagrams, tables and graphs and writing.  We want the children to enjoy and love learning about geography both inside and outside the classroom, including educational visits to develop fieldwork and to practice their geographical skills. 

Geography at Key stage 2

Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge

• locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
• name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
• identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)

Place knowledge

• understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region in North or South America

Human and physical geography

• describe and understand key aspects of:
  • physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
  • human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

Geographical skills and fieldwork

• use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
• use the 8 points of a compass, 4- and 6-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
• use fieldwork to observe, measure record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies