Geography

The study of geography involves our pupils exploring the relationship and interactions between people and the environments in which they live and upon which they and all life on Earth depends.  Many of the pupils who now attend our school will live to see the next century and inhabit a world of 11 billion people.  The many opportunities and challenges that will arise during their lifetime will be very much about geography at personal, national and global scales.  What we intend pupils to learn in geography reflects this throughout our curriculum.  In particular we have established a school curriculum plan for geography as an entitlement for all pupils that is:

• Aspirational in terms of instilling in our pupils a desire to achieve the highest levels of success through providing them with the opportunities to excel in terms of their acquisition of long-lasting knowledge and understanding and mastery of core geographical skills.
• Logical, relevant, broad and balanced in terms of the areas of subject content we have selected which reflect the guidance of the National Curriculum. For example, we have ensured that content includes an even proportion of physical and human investigations such as the effect volcanoes on people’s lives and the impact of the rise of megacities in the world.  Due consideration has been given also to making certain that our geography curriculum maintains relevancy and topicality through including enquiries that engage pupils in studying issues such as climate change and those which are local to them through locality studies in each key stage.
• Sequenced to ensure that pupils can build on previous knowledge and understanding as they tackle more complex and demanding enquiries. For example, at Key Stage 1, pupils observe and record the distinctive geographical features of the local area of the school and compare and contrast them with a similarly sized area around a school in Borneo.  At Key Stage 2 this knowledge and understanding is both consolidated and extended as pupils investigate the nature of environmental change in their local area.
• Progressively more challenging Years 1 through 6 both in terms of the complexity of the subject knowledge we want our pupils to acquire and also the geographical skills that we want the children to develop with the use of ‘Milestones’.
• Built upon and has continuity with the provision for geography established in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in particular that which addresses the knowledge and skills expectations of the People, Culture and Communities Early Learning Goal.
• Inclusive in terms of delivering the same curriculum to all of our pupils irrespective of specific learning needs or disabilities and differentiating where necessary through, for example, in class support, providing different learning environments, alternative learning activities and assessment outcomes.

Geography Policy 

Below is our Geography policy which outlines in more detail how our Geography curriculum is taught. 

Geography Enquiries

These are the enquiries which are taught across a 2 year rolling programme at Scremerston First School. Within each enquiry there are between 5 and 8 ancillary questions which are outlined in greater depth in the Key Stage overviews. 

Progression of Skills

This whole school document outlines how skills are developed and built upon from the early years up to Year 6. This document has been created alongside partnership middle schools to ensure that there is a sound progression and coverage throughout the primary age range. The Key Stage overviews shows in more detail how these skills are embedded within each enquiry. 

Key Stage 1 Overview

Key Stage 2 Overview

Our Geography curriculum in practice