Our intent is to foster a sense of place and location, enabling children to develop an understanding of where they live in relation to the wider world, and how human and physical geography influences the world’s environments and communities. By studying topics such as ecosystems, weather, mapping, and global issues, pupils will gain a solid understanding of the interconnectedness of the world and the impact of human activity on the environment. 

We aim to inspire children to become responsible global citizens, equipped with the knowledge to understand geographical challenges and the confidence to take an active role in shaping a sustainable future. Ultimately, the geography curriculum at Blowers Green is designed to nurture a lifelong interest in the world, while developing the skills needed to explore, interpret, and engage with it in a meaningful way. 

Geography is vital to understanding the world around us. Our curriculum is knowledge rich and informed by key pedagogical research to enable all pupils to be engaged, retain key subject knowledge and develop the skills required to think like a geographer through our substantive concepts: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork.  

The geography curriculum at Blowers Green is designed to provide pupils with a comprehensive understanding of the world around them. It is structured to ensure that children not only experience geographical content but also learn and remember it.  

The curriculum is designed to be interesting and enjoyable, fostering a love for learning geography. Engaging content and varied teaching methods keep pupils motivated and eager to learn. Within EYFS, geography is taught as part of a play-based curriculum through Understanding of the World, broken down into People, Culture and Communities and The Natural World, allowing children to make sense of the world around them through carefully planned child-initiated opportunities and adult-led activities. As a result, children are equipped with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for Year One. 

From Year 1 to Year 6, geography lessons are scheduled fortnightly, knowledge is taught through a progressive modular approach, in which children study new content, skills and vocabulary in depth. Careful sequencing allows for purposeful connections to prior learning enabling children to know more and remember more (interrupting the forgetting curve). It is structured with a clear sequence and progression, ensuring that each stage builds on the previous one developing children’s expanding schema. This approach prevents cumulative disfluency, where gaps in knowledge could hinder future learning.  

Through our substantive concepts, key geographical ideas are revisited, allowing for strong connections to be built as these concepts are applied to a variety of studies. The subject is ‘kept warm’ using several different strategies: each class has an accessible UK and world map displayed, these are referred to regularly to strengthen actual and relative position of locations. ‘Picture maps’ and ‘where in the world’ quizzes are used to stimulate discussions about places studied and for retrieval of key geographical knowledge.   

At Blowers Green, the impact of our geography curriculum is evident in the progress children make in both their understanding of the world and their ability to think critically about geographical issues. By the time pupils leave our school, they will have developed a strong understanding of their actual and relative position in the world and the physical and human features that shape the world around them, from local environments to global landscapes. They will be able to confidently use geographical terms, tools, and skills, such as map reading, data collection, and fieldwork techniques, to explore and understand their surroundings. 

Assessment is integrated as a continuous part of the learning process in that it becomes a conversational routine. It is used not only to measure progress but also to inform teaching and support individual learning needs.  

Formative assessments help identify areas where pupils may be struggling, allowing for responsive feedback. Strategies that are essential for some but useful for all are employed to prevent children from falling behind, ensuring our mantra of: ‘keep up not catch up.’ This supports the concept of strong sequence and clear progression, ensuring that all pupils can succeed. 

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• 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 experiences of fieldwork that deepen 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.