Geography
At Royal Rise Primary School all children, including SEND and Disadvantaged, learn the following concepts and themes through studying different geographical topics throughout the school
After our aspirations topics, our school year begins with the whole school having a geography focused topic. We start with geography because it is something familiar to the children, especially for the children in Year 1.
We want them to accurately articulate their thoughts and opinions through the proactive acquisition of technical and none technical vocabulary.
Concepts
- Understanding our changing and interconnected world
- Comparing and contrasting
- Environmental Impact
- Cause and effect
Themes:
- Map and atlas work
- Human and physical features
- Investigating and field work
- By connecting our British Values through the teaching of Geography, we explore issues that affect us all in our lives and this helps inform decisions that will shape our future e.g plastic waste.
British Values
By connecting our British Values through the teaching of Geography, we explore issues that affect us all in our lives and this helps inform decisions that will shape our future e.g plastic waste.
Key Stage 1
Year 1
We start by looking at the weather - this is a real life concrete concept for children and is something to which they can easily relate. Children look at the changes in the weather and what would be appropriate clothing e.g. to wear into the playground, to go into the local area.
This connects to links are made to local area/ map work. Prior to children exploring the local area, the children are taught about maps and learn basic map skills. This starts with the children’s immediate knowledge e.g. a map of the table, then the playground and then the wider area/ investigate their surroundings e.g. Tonbridge.
We introduce Children to geographical knowledge and then build on this outwardly into other year groups- by layering skill and knowledge year on year.
Year 2
As the children move into year 2 we extend this further by looking at Kent and look at two contrasting towns e.g. Tonbridge and Hastings. They look at the human and physical features and begin to develop an understanding of how they are connected. They move from maps of the classroom to aerial photos; road maps and maps of the major features of the UK. They begin to familiarise themselves with the location of the River Medway and its relationship to the development of the local area.
Key Stage 2
Year 3
In year 3 they study rivers in detail as a key physical geographical feature. The River Medway (a local river) is compared to the Amazon, the children compare the physical and human features of each area. There is then the analysis of evidence and drawing conclusions; understanding geographical similarities and differences. They study larger scale maps of the world identifying a range of rivers and other features. They look at the physical features of the UK by looking at other rivers and the river system.
Year 4
In year 4 they move on to looking at coastal features with a trip to Hastings. They are looking at the human and physical features and how they are connected. They look at how the physical features impact the human use of the land and environmental issues e.g. erosion and coastal defences, tourism, fishing etc. We link this back to the weather and how weather affects floods, droughts etc.
Year 5
In year 5 they investigate places with more emphasis on the larger scale, contrasting more distant places. They also look at the impact of large-scale physical features on human lives e.g earthquakes and volcanoes, land use etc.
They look at thematic maps and the comparison of other large scale maps.
Year 6
In year 6 using all the previous knowledge and skills taught the children study world scale biomes. They independently apply the skills already learnt from previous years in order to explain and analyse appropriate data. They compare contrasting biomes and develop their understanding of the human impact on them – including major environmental issues like pollution. They make comparisons and draw conclusions.
