‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.’

(National Curriculum)

At St. Peter’s Church of England Junior School, we strive to ignite children’s curiosity of the world and its people, aiming to spark their interest to explore and understand the diversity of the wider world that we live in.

As we seek to inspire ‘life in all its fullness’, our geography curriculum is designed to equip children with geographical skills and knowledge through their study of places, people and natural and human environments.  Enhanced by geography fieldwork and projects that capture hearts and minds, we strive to deepen children's understanding of the earth’s human and physical forms and processes. 
Through our geography curriculum and wider experiences, we aim to stimulate children's thinking and questioning, encouraging them to wonder and discover.  This is supported by exploration and research, enabling children to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of our world and their place within it.

Inspired by ‘living life to the full’, we strive to instil a love of learning and enable all children to learn for life.  We regard our school as a happy place for ‘life in all fullness’ adventures, proud of our geography curriculum that promotes discovery and encourages action. 

Supported by research, we believe that a geography curriculum enhances ‘life in all its fullness’ by:

• Helping children to make sense of the world around them
• Sparking curiosity in places and people
• Engaging children in the exploration of their world
• Instilling a sense of place, both locally and globally
• Igniting a duty of care about the planet and our role in looking after it
• Spurring children into action, enhanced by fieldwork, fun and adventure!

As stated in the National Curriculum for geography, we aim for all of our pupils to be able to:

• 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 and aerial photographs
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

We strive to embed our values in all areas of school life, promoting them as a guide for flourishing in life and learning.

As geographers, we show:

• KINDNESS: Show empathy and understanding for different types of land use, economic activity, and the distribution of natural resources, protecting our world from harm and understanding the impact we can have on physical geography.
• HONESTY: Know our true value on this earth and appreciate our honest sense of place, both locally and globally.
• CELEBRATE: Celebrate the similarities and differences we discover about the diversity of our world.
• PERSEVERANCE: Take responsibility to know the world around us by undertaking geographical fieldwork to observe, measure, record, and present human and physical features.
• CURIOSITY: Use and develop our geographical skills to explore the world, collaborating with one another to serve our community both now and in the future.

Through our geography curriculum, children extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This includes the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. Through their study and enquiry, children develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge. 

Each geography unit follows the same journey:

• a hook lesson to engage and excite children at the start of their unit, including an overarching enquiry question, which is revisited throughout 
• opportunities for children to explore maps and gather information about their area/focus of study
• enquiry based activities that enable children to make sense of and process information, with opportunities to draw their own conclusions 
• new information is presented, enabling children to develop and refine their understanding 
• where appropriate, fieldwork is undertaken to consolidate learning
• children create a final outcome in response to their enquiry question

Subject Lead: Mr Hudson