Geography at Maple Infants' School
We are really proud of the multi-cultural community and we are aware that we have many children who have already had experiences traveling to different places in the world. We want to enhance all children’s geographical knowledge and spark their curiosity through the experiences of others as well as comparisons we can make to our local school community and globally significant places. We are also striving to ensure that our children develop an awareness and respect of the differences in environments and cultures that could be experienced around our world.
Our geography curriculum in the early years focuses on their understanding of the world. Vocabulary development is essentially important for all of our young learners and this is a focus for our staff team to support our children to progress. The children begin to explore their geographical skills from the early years developing their curiosity about our local environment and using our topics and the children’s interests to develop their geographical understanding. We want our children to build their understanding of our shared role as global citizens and the importance of sustainability, diversity and belonging, so this journey begins in the early years.
From key stage 1, the children follow the National Curriculum. The subject content for key stage 1 is as follows:
Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.
Pupils should be taught to:
Locational knowledge
Our geography curriculum in the early years focuses on their understanding of the world. Vocabulary development is essentially important for all of our young learners and this is a focus for our staff team to support our children to progress. The children begin to explore their geographical skills from the early years developing their curiosity about our local environment and using our topics and the children’s interests to develop their geographical understanding. We want our children to build their understanding of our shared role as global citizens and the importance of sustainability, diversity and belonging, so this journey begins in the early years.
From key stage 1, the children follow the National Curriculum. The subject content for key stage 1 is as follows:
Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.
Pupils should be taught to:
Locational knowledge
- name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
- name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas
- understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country
- Human and physical geography
- identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
- use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:
- key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather
- key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop
- use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
- use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map
- use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
- use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.