Geography

"I began studying geography because I wanted to learn more about the world I live in."   Alice Hyde

"It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it."  Isaiah 45:12

Why do we teach Geography?

Geography is more than learning about maps; it is the study of places, landscapes, environments and people - and how they have affected each other over time to become what it is today. 

We teach Geography to develop a better world view – it helps the children to gain an appreciation for the world that goes beyond the borders that they live within and develops their understanding that they are part of a global community.

We want to

• Develop an understanding of place within space.
• Develop and appreciation that the world goes beyond their border; that they are part of a global community.
• Encourage children to reflect on our key question weaving through our geography curriculum - "How can we improve the quality of people's lives?"
• Provide the children with a framework of knowledge so that will become educated citizens (cultural capital).
• Inspire in our children a curiosity and fascination about the world they live in.

"The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help build bridges and bring people together."

Barack Obama

What do we teach?

To develop children's knowledge and understanding of locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork, we deliver our Geography curriculum through topics.  With our chosen topics, we aim to inspire children's curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. The children are also encouraged to reflect on the key question, weaved throughout the topics, of  'How can we improve the quality of people's lives?'  

Content of learning in Geography:

• Y1: Our local area, country, continent & world
  
• Y2: Rainforest & Seaside
• Y3: Oceania & Extreme Earth
• Y4: Asia;  North America
• Y5: Africa & scarce resources
• Y6:  Antarctica; Changing landscapes, changing world

We have designed a knowledge organiser for each unit of study, which gives the children and teachers the 'bigger picture' of the topic they are learning about.

Our expectations (Impact)

We want our children to leave St Michael's with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth's key physical and human processes. We want to educate our children to know how to improve their life chance and the quality of people's lives. 

Our bespoke knowledge organisers sets out what we want the children to know by heart by the end of the topic.  We expect the majority of children to be able to recall many, if not all, of the key facts.   At the end of each unit we use a 'pop quiz' to assess the children's knowledge and understanding in relation to the content of learning.