Geography Geography lessons help develops knowledge and understanding of places and environments throughout the world. Activities include exploring the local and faraway places using maps. St Louis has adapted the Primary Knowledge Curriculum (PKC) to develop the St Louis Geography Curriculum.

Intent 

Our curriculum helps pupils build powerful knowledge of the world. Through the carefully sequenced curriculum, children build knowledge over time, knowing more and remembering more as they work through the curriculum.

Conceptual understanding is at the heart of teaching and children will learn about key geographical concepts including place, space, the environment, and how the world around them is interconnected.

Throughout the curriculum, children will consider what we know about the world, what geographers do, what they look for, and how they may interpret their observations. By answering questions such as ‘what would a geographer say about this place?’, we encourage children to think about the discipline of geography and how knowledge is formed.

Pupils following the curriculum provide many opportunities to make interesting and complex connections between what they study in geography and other subjects such as history and science. The knowledge-rich approach to a primary geography curriculum helps children to understand the world around them, to think deeply about global issues and to develop their own sense of identity; knowing who they are and equipping them with the power to determine their futures.

Implementation

In KS1 children learn about:

Locational Knowledge: Name and Locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans and locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas.

Place Knowledge: Understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country.

Human and Physical Geography: Identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles, use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to: • key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather. Use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to: • key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop.

Geographical Skills and Fieldwork: Use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage, use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map, use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key; use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.

In LKS2 children learn about: 

Locational Knowledge: locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities, name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time, identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night).

Place knowledge: understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America.

Human and Physical Geography: Describe and understand key aspects of; physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle, describe and understand key aspects of: human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water.

Geographical Skills and Fieldwork: use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied, use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world, use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

In UKS2 children will learn: 

Locational Knowledge: locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities, name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time, identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night).

Place knowledge: understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America.

Human and Physical Geography: Describe and understand key aspects of; physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle, describe and understand key aspects of: human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water.

Geographical Skills and Fieldwork: use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied, use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world, use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

Impact

Theknowledge children is specified, ordered coherently and builds over time. As children work through our geography curriculum they will know more, understand more about the world around them. A good geographical understanding relies on firm foundations of knowledge and skills. The skills our curriculum develops, like the knowledge, are specified, ordered coherently and progress over time. This curriculum structure helps pupils to deepen their understanding of physical and human geographical processes, fostering curiosity and fascination for the world we live in.