Geography

“Learning about where we live and the world around us.”

 

Intent

At Boldmere, we want our children to begin to have an understanding of their place in the world through direct experiences and knowledge of their local environment. We value the varied experiences that our children bring and aim to use these as a starting point to make links with our geography curriculum, learning about their local environments as well as different places in the wider world. We want our young children to be excited to learn about places and environments and to develop respect for our world. We aim for them to leave our school with basic knowledge and geographical vocabulary which they can build on in KS2.

 

 

Implementation

At Boldmere, we have designed our own school curriculum based on the EYFS Development Matters 2021, National Curriculum and our school topics. Geographical skills are taught alongside knowledge of places and environments. Skills are revisited in different contexts in order for them to be embedded and developed. Through our topics, we make links between geography and other areas of the curriculum.

 

We teach key knowledge but allow flexibility so that children can share their own experiences and understanding of local environments and places around the world. We use our school grounds and local high street as a resource and try to make lessons as practical and ‘hands on’ as possible.

 

We encourage children to record the places they visit by borrowing ‘Barnaby Bear’ and his diary when they go on holiday.

 

 

 

Our Curriculum

The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the National Curriculum as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas.

We believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in securing solid foundations that children are going to continue to build upon.  We want our children to have the opportunity to acquire prerequisite skills for geography within the national curriculum.

The table outlines the most relevant statements taken from the Early Learning Goals in the EYFS statutory framework and the Development Matters age ranges for three and four-year-olds and Reception to match the programme of study for geography.

 

 

Geography in action in the Early Years

 

At Boldmere, we encourage children to want to explore and discover.

In Key Stage One, we use the National Curriculum objectives which focus on Locational knowledge, Place knowledge, Human and physical geography and Geographical skills and fieldwork. These objective are combined with the aims of our topics, promoting links between Geography and other areas of the curriculum wherever possible. Our topic work, such as Explorers in Year Two, enables the children to develop geographical knowledge whilst deepening their understanding of significant events from the past through research into the historical race for the South Pole. We also begin topics with an over-arching enquiry question which the children use to gather and consider information as we progress through the topic. This allowed the children to make more informed and critical conclusions such as whether Christopher Columbus’ discovery was a good or a bad thing and why.

In Year One, children carry out fieldword tasks around our school grounds, making observations and talking about the human and physical features that they can identify.   

  

This knowledge is built upon as they move through key Stage One, extending to beyond their locality to the four countries which make up the United Kingdom.

 

We believe that fieldwork is an integral part of the teaching of Geography as it provides the opportunity to collect, analyse and enquire with a range of data that deepens understanding of geographical processes.

Children are also encouraged to interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes and aerial photographs. Children should be supported to understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness. Children will also learn location and place knowledge of hot and cold countries as well as seasonal and daily weather patterns in Britain.

 

Geography in action in Key Stage One

 

 

We encourage children to record the places they visit by borrowing ‘Barnaby Bear’ and his diary when they go on holiday.

 

They love to share their experiences and this provides an opportunity to link our Geographical skills with developing our writing skills too.

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor Classroom Day

At Boldmere we celebrate international Classroom Day twice a year. The children spend the day engaged in a variety of outdoor activities designed to inspire outdoor learning and exploration, helping to extend their geographical skills.

We regularly use pupil voice to give the children the opportunity to talk about how they feel about Geography in our school. Pupil voice has shown us children value Geography and have a clear understanding of the purpose of learning in Geography, “So we can learn about where we live and talk about the whole world and the countries in it.”

 

Useful resources and links

The Geographical Association is the leading organisation supporting geographical teaching in the UK. 

The Royal Geographical Society has also published a wealth of resources which are available at: 

 

Curriculum