Geography at Park

The Geography curriculum has been intentionally designed to ensure children develop substantive knowledge (factual content) alongside the development of disciplinary knowledge (the action taken within a specific subject to gain knowledge) as they learn the fundamental skills of what it is to be a geographer. Children will study a range of spaces including their local area and the wider world which is around them. The curriculum has been designed and sequenced to equip our children with a secure, coherent knowledge of their locality, the United Kingdom, weather patterns, and locations across the world. Units of work have been deliberately planned and sequenced within the long-term map to aid children’s retention of knowledge, using the principle of Cognitive Science.

The NPAT Geography curriculum is based on the National Curriculum 2014.

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. (National Curriculum 2014)

The following themes have been identified as part of the Geography curriculum: change, culture and diversity, scale, sense of place, space, sustainability and the environment. These will form the ‘Big Ideas’ through which all geography will be taught. The concepts are frequently reinforced and developed and teachers will make explicit reference to where children have met the concepts previously in the curriculum. 

At the heart of our curriculum approach is retrieval practice and revisiting knowledge. Retrieval practice involves deliberately recalling knowledge from memory to make learning stick and become connected. Units of work refer to learning from previous units to enable children to build their geographical knowledge over time as they progress through the curriculum.

Sustainability and the Environment are at the heart of the Geography curriculum with units explicitly linked in Years 3, 5 and 6. It is also explored implicitly through the journey of the curriculum.

During Lower Key Stage 2, children will be given the opportunity to revisit and develop knowledge of their local area, an understanding of the United Kingdom, and the names of the 7 continents and 5 oceans which would have been covered in KS1. They will revise weather patterns, seasonal changes and basic geographical terms. Children will then be given the opportunity to develop their knowledge of their locality and the wider world, through the use of use globes, maps and atlases, begin to compare locations and have opportunities to explore their immediate environment through fieldwork. The following areas of focus have been selected: From North to South – how are spaces in England different?  How do natural disasters impact Europe? What can England learn about sustainability from Europe? Why is the Rainforest Important to Me?  Are all rivers the same? Year Four will also participate in the National Gallery Take One Picture Programme with explicit geography links made to the painting each year.

During Upper Key Stage 2, children will broaden their locational knowledge to include a wide variety of places on each continent, including their main geographical characteristics. They will explore the natural processes of the Earth and consider the impact of people on our planet. They will continue to explore the world around them interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems which they will learn to use in detail. The following areas of focus have been selected: Where would you rather live- in Northampton, England or Northampton, USA? Canals and Rivers. What is the difference? Global Warming and Climate Change. Are they the same thing? Where is Africa and what is it like? Why is water so valuable? Sustainability and the Environment – how can I make a difference? 

Key Geography vocabulary is specified and explicitly taught as part of the NPAT Geography Curriculum. The development of vocabulary progresses, is revisited and embedded throughout the curriculum journey.