Intent

At Larkrise Primary School, we Inspire our children through the Geography  Curriculum, which we have developed based on the Geography National Curriculum and Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, where the foundational aspects of geographical knowledge and skills are evident in ‘Understanding the World’.  

Inspire Knowledge and Skills: Our geography curriculum is designed to balance acquiring broad and deep knowledge alongside opportunities to apply skills in various contexts. Beyond teaching geography discretely, we give children the opportunity to apply and develop what they have learnt across wider learning within the Inspire Curriculum by using geographical enquiry to support our enquiry-led learning and Big Questions.

Inspire Creativity & Adventure: Geography at Larkrise inspires children to make sense of their immediate physical environment and their community, supporting their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. Children use globes, atlases, maps and aerial photographs to investigate both their local area and the wider world and use their understanding of the physical geography of the earth to discover what those places are like. Children also create their own maps of both real and imagined places and use them to explore. We give children the opportunity to explore and navigate their local area and beyond, including visiting geographically significant places particular to Oxford, such as the rivers, castles and colleges.  

Inspire Kindness: While learning about the Earth, children at Larkrise learn about the importance of conserving all that is special and unique about its environment. We support children to understand the current issues facing the planet, as well as empowering them to see the difference that their actions and voices can have in making change. 

Implementation 

Specifics of what is taught in each year group can be found in the Geography Progression Grids and each year group’s Long Term Plans and further detail is evident in our Knowledge - Skills - Vocabulary organisers. Each year the children will have the opportunity to explore the following themes of the Geography Curriculum.

• Locational Knowledge
• Place Knowledge
• Human and Physical Geography
• Geographical Skills and Fieldwork

Each of these themes is revisited regularly (at least once in each year group) and pupils revisit each theme through a new enquiry that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme. 

Like all areas of our Inspire Curriculum, we have used research evidence to develop our teaching and learning pedagogy. For more information, please see our Inclusive Quality First Teaching Key Principles.

Impact

By the time children in Year 6 leave us, they will have had opportunities to:

Inspire Knowledge and Skills: 

• Describe and understand key aspects of Earth’s physical geography, such as rivers, volcanoes and the water cycle 
• Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, such as settlements, land use and economic activity
• Recognise and observe physical and human geographical aspects of Oxford, both on maps and on visits
• Understand geographical similarities and differences between the United Kingdom and a broad range of countries - both human and physical features
• Apply knowledge of longitude, latitude and the position of Earth in space to understand key geographical aspects of different parts of Earth
• Be able to use grid references to locate and describe places on maps

Inspire Creativity & Adventure: 

• Navigate routes around their immediate environment, local area and city 
• Use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present human and physical geographical features of their city, using a range of methods
• Have created their own maps, of both real and imagined places

Inspire Kindness: 

• Know some of the current issues impacting the environment and the reasons for them
• Recognise what actions they can take to make a positive difference to the environment
• Have made their views on environmental issues heard
• Have had the opportunity to be a member of our Eco Council and work towards the Green Flag Award 

More information on the impact of the Curriculum can be seen in our ‘Larkrise Look’.