Our vision for geography is to give our pupils a sound knowledge beginning with their own locality and where they live, their local environment and our Church before broadening the base in year 2 and moving to a comparison of cities – Liverpool and New York. Moving on to the United Kingdom and then looking at geography from a regional, national, continental and finally global perspective.  As our pupils move through our curriculum their confidence and understanding will grow incrementally.  Our aim is for children to build their geographical vocabulary and to retain important facts.  In doing so, children will develop an appreciation and understanding of the world and it’s peoples. Pupils will be taught about diverse locations, people, resources, and natural and human environments.  Our pupils will be encouraged to make links and understand the interaction between human and physical processes and how landscapes and environments are formed and how and why the features of our world have been formed.  Incrementally our pupils will build upon geographical skills analysing data, experiencing fieldwork, using a compass, interpreting information using a range of maps, aerial photographs, and atlases.

Our geography curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.

To embrace our Curriculum of Grace, pupils learn:

• That our world is an amazing place, given to us by God and filled with wonders such as mountains, lakes and rivers and how rivers, lakes and mountains are formed over time.
• How in God’s world natural resources are distributed and how it is vital we look after them for example ‘Rainforests’. Children will learn that they are the future generation who will have stewardship of the world God created.
• How geography is about diversity and diversity is positive. The differences between cities such as Liverpool and New York and a comparison of farming in Britain and Kenya.
• The children will acquire skills which will help them navigate and understand maps. Maps are the ‘tool’ of a geography and we will help our children to become confident in their use.
• The use of ambitious, subject specific vocabulary to articulate themselves
• How Geography can be interesting and engaging and how it has shaped the world we live in.
• Nature is resilient

The recurrent themes of the geography planning are:-

	Theme/skills	Outcome	Reason
EYFS and Key Stage 1	Local knowledge - wonder of God’s World	To understand, our school, our church, Wigan, the United Kingdom and about our weather.	To be confident about our locality/England/United Kingdom and to use this knowledge as a foundation to access wider knowledge of the world.  To understand about season weather patterns.
	How physical geography affects human settlements.	To understand why towns and cities are settled in particular locations – Compare Liverpool and New York	To be aware of the interaction of geography/topography and settlement.
	Early mapwork – symbols, and 4 NSEW compass directions, aerial photographs	These geographical skills are the foundation for the map work which will be a focus of KS2	Maps are a currency of life – a true  ‘life skill’
	Fieldwork ·         School – St. Paul’s Church ·         Mesnes Park	To become confident drawing and using basic maps and learning about our local community and our local landmarks.	To practically learn and apply geographical skills starting with their immediate locality. The walk from school to St. Paul’s Church translating into a map with recognisable symbols.  Mesnes Park with it’s Victorain heritage and links to cal and mining and the opportunity to practice real life map skills points of the compass and drawing a map with symbols.
Key Stage 2	Maps/atlases/digimaps/ 8 compass directions	The development and confidence to use maps of all kinds and scales	Maps are a currency of life – a true ‘ life skill’.
	How physical geography affects human settlements.	To understand why towns and cities are settled in particular locations – cities in Greece,	To be aware of the synergy of geography and settlement.
	The wonder of God’s World the development of rivers and mountains and the study of earthquakes and volcanoes	The understanding of how rivers and mountains are formed and what causes volcanoes and earthquakes	To appreciate the awe and wonder of our world and becomes effective stewards of it as the next generation. To understand the water cycle and the gift of water.
	Fieldwork ·         Traffic survey – school and Wigan Town Centre – creating hypotheses ·         Haigh Hall and River Douglas incorporating the flood defences at Marylebone ·         Top Locks – canals – importance for trade and of late leisure industry ·         Liverpool – Slave trade, Liverpool as a port	To use fieldwork to measure and record and present human and physical features.	To understand our locality in terms of geographical human and physical features.  The importance of River Douglas, Leeds Liverpool canal in the development of trade and our area.  Alterations in traffic patterns, importance of the bus and train links.  Liverpool as a City – Cathedral and port.

EYFS

Early Years Understanding the World.

(Term 1 Geography overview.)

Theme: Ourselves/Autumn

The World 30-50mths:

Children comment and ask questions about aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world. 

Children can talk about some of the things they have observed.

40-60mths:

Children develop an understanding of growth, decay and change over time.

During this term, the children learn where they live in Wigan and their house number (links with maths recognition of numerals of personal significance.)

We talk about our families and our homes and compare similarities and differences.

We learn about our school and church – belonging to St. Pauls and develop an understanding of our school environment and where things are such as the playground, hall etc… We learn about special people in school.

As we head towards Autumn, the children go on an Autumn walk over the half term holiday and collect objects for us to share and discuss such as conkers, leaves etc…

We observe what happens in Autumn and compare Autumn objects, exploring texture, shape etc….

We also go on an Autumn welly walk in our outdoor area and take photographs and collect Autumn resources for the children to sort and observe in class.

The children plant Autumn bulbs and learn about where food comes from – Harvest.

Term 2:

Theme Journeys/Spring and Growth

Children comment and ask questions about aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world. 

Children can talk about some of the things they have observed.

ELG: Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places.  They talk about features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one to another.

During this term, we learn about our town Wigan in greater depth. We explore the main landmarks of Wigan such as Wigan Pier, Mesnes park.

We learn how to make maps of our journeys to school and explore what maps looks like- symbols etc…

We compare the town of Wigan with the countryside in ‘The Bear Hunt’ story and write a list of some of the main features of towns compared with countryside. We talk about likes/dislikes and how we can look after our town and countryside – recycling, litter picks etc….

Children observe their Autumn bulbs which they planted as they now start to grow in our garden area. We care for our plants and plant a variety of seeds and bulbs throughout the term. We learn what plants need in order to survive and compare environments such as light ad dark, water and dry places.

Term 3

Theme – Traditional Tales

ELG: Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places.  They talk about features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one to another.

Children continue to compare environments through the use of stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man.  We compare the environments which are similar and different . We begin to look at hot countries such as Africa through stories and compare the climate and the effects which this has on for example food and drink production and consumption.

Geography Curriculum Map