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Geography

Geography Intent

‘“Cherish the natural world, because you’re part of it and you depend on it”’ Sir David Attenborough.

 

We want our children to acquire a natural thirst for knowledge about the world around them and what better way to ignite that passion than through the teaching of Geography. Kew Riverside Primary School itself is situated in an inspiring and diverse locality, a mere eight miles from central London.  Our Geography curriculum makes full use of the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a rich understanding of the locality around them so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area.

From Reception to Year 6, the children are immersed in thoughtfully chosen topics which are central to a key question; questions we encourage the children to create in their geographical enquiries in order to stimulate their curiosity about their immediate locality, London, England, the UK and on a global scale.

We pride ourselves on providing cross-curricular learning that helps reinforce our children’s knowledge and lets them apply it in different subjects. Through inspiring pupils, our children will gain knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. They will also understand the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Our children will develop their geographical skills through the use of fieldwork, maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Children will also develop their ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences.

We are acutely aware that the world in which we live can influence our children’s decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. As a school, we make links to both our core school and British Values, holding thoughtful and careful discussions about the impact our and other peoples people's decisions have on our world and the wellbeing of children. This enables our children to learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain.

Geography is a living, breathing subject, constantly adapting itself to change. It is dynamic and relevant. For me, geography is a great adventure with a purpose.” Michael Palin.

Our Geography curriculum has been designed to cover all the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that ‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination geography about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives’.

In line with the National Curriculum, at Kew Riverside, our Geography curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to;

  • develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
  • understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

Are competent in the geographical skills needed to:

  • collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experience of fieldwork that deepens their understanding of geographical processes.
  • interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
  • communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

We have mapped out our Geography learning journey for all our children to ensure they learn a wide range of geographical knowledge and skills. 

Our Geography Skills progression document below shows the skills the children will learn in their Geography journey at school.  

 

As part of our Geography Curriculum, we provide our children with knowledge organisers to support learn and retain key knowledge and facts in Geography. See a sample of these below: