Rationale:

Our Geography curriculum inspires in our children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, locally, nationally and globally.  Children develop their knowledge of diverse places and people, alongside knowledge of physical and human geography.  In addition, children develop their skills as geographers including map work and field work skills.  Our geography curriculum enables our children to recognise the importance of sustainable development in the world today and for future generations. 

The aims of the Geography Curriculum at St Laurence's are:

• To build children’s knowledge of the world and its physical and human geography
• To develop children’s geographical skills, including map work and field work
• To develop children’s awareness of sustainability and their role in shaping the world for the future.

 Delivery of Geography Lessons at St Laurence's

In Early Years, the foundations of Geography are taught holistically, with knowledge and skills woven into half-termly topics that have been developed systematically to ensure progression.  Our children develop knowledge linked to themselves, our school and the local area, as well as developing knowledge of places around the world.  Our children learn to describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observations and stories.  Our children learn to explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.

In Key Stage 1, geography is taught through half-termly topics.  Our children learn about the geography of their school, the local area and the city of Coventry.  Our children’s knowledge builds progressively to include London, the United Kingdom and the world, with a focus on Africa.  They begin to use geographical skills including map work and field work, including field visits within the school grounds and to Coventry and a seaside location.

In Key Stage 2, geography is taught through six termly in-depth topics.  Our children learn about places beyond the local area, including Europe and the USA, alongside developing knowledge of rainforests, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes around the world.  They learn the characteristics of both physical and human geography and develop their geographical skills through map work and field work opportunities, including field visits to a local river, a botanical garden and a visit to Snowdonia.

Geographical knowledge threads (substantive knowledge) and geographical skills (disciplinary knowledge) are developed progressively throughout each topic.

Progression in knowledge is shown in our Geography Knowledge Progression document, which identifies age-related expectations for our knowledge threads (substantive knowledge) and geographical skills (disciplinary knowledge):

substantive knowledge:

• locational / place knowledge (local area, the UK and the World)
• physical geography
• human geography
• environment and sustainability

disciplinary knowledge:

• reading maps
• locating places
• carrying out fieldwork
• using geographical sources

The children's learning is supported by a front cover page with images of key learning and a list of geographical vocabulary.

If you have any questions or need further information about our geography curriculum, please feel free to contact the geography lead teacher via the school office.

Mrs. Morley

Geography Lead