Geography

Subject Lead: Mrs Liezel Jacobs

Our Geography curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and the people that are surrounding them. We strive to ensure that all lessons are knowledge rich and promote independent learning.  

Our children will investigate a range of places – from both Britain and the wider world – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes.  At SPIS, we are committed to providing our children with opportunities to investigate their local area, so they can have a deeper understanding of who they are, where they live and what makes our area so unique and special. Within lessons, children use a wide variety of different skills such as; geographical enquiry, directions and locations, and the use and drawing of maps which help to develop their geographical knowledge. 

How we teach Geography 

Our aim in Geography is to give our pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding of the world around them. As children move throughout the school, they will use and build upon their skill sets. Our lessons are enriched with a range of different outdoor learning opportunities, with children going on trips to and carrying out geographical surveys around our local area.  Within our lessons we actively make links to the wider world. Children are immersed in the key vocabulary and are aware of the skills that they are learning. Our lessons involve cold tasks where children think about what they already know about the topic and hot tasks that are completed at the end of the lesson where children are able to assess their own progress. Each geography lesson begins with a ‘key question’ which encourages the children to think about the answer before the learning begins and children will be able to answer this question by the end of the lesson. 

Useful Links: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zcdqxnb

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/

The Seven Continents Song!

In Year 1 we begin to learn the world's seven continents and five oceans, and we recap this in Year 2 as deliberate practice to embed the children's learning. To make this topic exciting, we use globes, atlases and learn catchy songs that help us to remember the continents and oceans. We repeat this song throughout Year 1 and Year 2 and the children absolutely love it! Here are some of our Year 1 children singing the song.

Local Area Walks

Throughout geography in EYFS and KS1 we learn about our local area and the different physical and human features around us. In Year 1, children go on a trip walking around our local area. On this trip, children identify any human features that they can see around them. It is a great way for the children to get to know their local area!

Flying to Africa!

In Year 2, we learn about different places in Africa to compare them to our local area. This allows us to identify the similarities and differences between two locations that are not close together. To immerse the children in the topic and to introduce it, we fly to Africa! We set up the hall as an aeroplane, give the children a boarding pass and passport and allow them to fly to Africa in the morning of our first day in the topic. We watch a safari as we are on the ‘plane’ and spot lots of different African animals. The teachers become air hostesses and provide snacks and drinks for the flight!  

Curriculum Coverage and Skills Progression

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Child Friendly Umbrella Learning

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Year Group Curriculum Overviews

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