At North Cave CE Primary School, we believe that it is important for children to learn more about and question the world around them. Our geography curriculum is designed to stimulate the children’s interests and enable them to develop the knowledge and skills needed to understand more about both the human and physical features of the world. The children learn about their locality and study the diversity of contrasting areas locally, nationally and internationally. The children are encouraged to learn through a range of media including using different sources for research and taking part in both day and residential visits.
Geography promotes an understanding of the world in which we live. At our school it is not seen in isolation and therefore we adopt a topic based approach which allows the children to learn vital skills as part of a broader topic. Sometimes these topics may have a larger history or geography focus however staff plan to ensure that the knowledge and key skills are taught for each subject. The school tracks curriculum coverage and ensures that all skills and knowledge are taught systematically across each key stage. The school therefore plans some additional topics to explicitly teach geography skills to a greater depth where necessary.
In order to ensure full coverage across each key stage, Class 1 and Class 2 operate a three year cycle. This means that the children in both EYFS and KS1 are able to access the theme. The three year cycle can be found below.
A key feature of our curriculum in Class 1 is ‘Welly Wednesday’. This popular initiative allows the children to learn more about our immediate school environment and extensive grounds through first hand experience and investigations.
The children in Class 3 and Class 4 follow a four year programme for their topics. The class teachers ensure that whilst all of the children follow the same overarching theme, age appropriate knowledge and skills are taught. The four year cycle can be found below.
The school actively promotes educational visits which include a residential visit for every year group. These provide an excellent opportunity for the children to develop their geographical skills and compare and contrast different localities.
Through our curriculum, the children develop an interest and enthusiasm for geography. The children gain a deep knowledge of their local area and are able to compare and contrast this to other areas both nationally and internationally. They recognise both physical and human features of different locations around the world and understand that land is used in a variety of ways. Through research and investigation, the children are taught to confidently ask questions about the world around them and to recognise its diversity. Through our topic approach, the children recognise how skills in geography are linked to other curriculum areas and how they are important in allowing us to have a broader knowledge and understanding of each topic studied.