Geography
Why we teach Geography?
“The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.” Barack Obama
Geography is a rich and exciting subject that provides children with the opportunity to learn about diverse places, people and environments. From an early age, children at St. Peter’s are inspired to develop a curiosity with the world around them and reflect on their place within it. Throughout their time at St. Peter’s, pupils will deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, as well as the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Children will also develop essential geographical skills, such as map reading and using a compass.
What we teach?
The school uses the National Curriculum and a topic based creative curriculum as the basis for its curriculum planning.
In geography lessons at St. Peter’s, we aim to:
- Provide learning opportunities that enthuse, engage and motivate children to learn and foster a sense of curiosity and wonder at the beauty of the world around them
- Enable children to gain knowledge and understanding of places in the world
- Allow children to learn a variety of geographical skills, including how to draw and read maps
- Ensure children use and understand geographical vocabulary
- Develop children’s understanding of different cultures, so they can be a respectful member of a multicultural society
- Enable children to know and understand environmental problems at a local, regional and global level
- Ensure children are able to make sense of their own surroundings through learning about their own locality and the interaction between people and the environment
- Deliver a geography curriculum that makes strong links with other subjects
WOW!
Watch this video to see some of our amazing geography work.
Want to find out more…
Top tips for supporting your child with geography:
- Know your local area and explore it with your children.
- Talk to your child about different people, places and environments. Have time to answer their questions.
- Walk to school and talk about what you see on the way. Select a different topic each time, e.g. Day 1: How many red objects can we see? Day 2: How many different vehicles can we spot?
- Let children plan the route they want to follow to school.
- Talk about topical issues highlighted by news programmes such as News Round.
- Look at the food you’re purchasing and note where they come from. Use an atlas or google maps to locate these countries together when you get home. You can also do this with items of clothing!
- Talk about places in films you watch together, e.g. The Lion King, Happy Feet, The Jungle Book, Ice Age, etc.
- Take pictures of the view from your back window once each month. At the end of the year can we order them together? How has the view changed through the months/seasons?
- When visiting different places outside our local area, talk about how the area is similar and different to our village.
- Watch or listen to the weather forecast. Did they get it right?
- Join the local library with your child. Go regularly and choose exciting books about different people and places.
Links:
KS1 Geography – England – BBC Bitesize
Geography at primary school | Oxford Owl
DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!
Test your map skills: MapZone home (ordnancesurvey.co.uk)
