Geography at Longford
Geography
Geography has the power to help us understand the world around us, foster curiosity about people, places and the environment and develop essential life skills.
Longford Primary Academy believes that all children should 'Fly High', having high aspirations gained from inspirational, significant individuals who have made a meaningful impact to the geographical field and our lives today. Every child at Longford Park can draw inspiration from figures throughout the curriculum to support their geographical understanding and develop their own sense of belonging in the world today. Pupils are also encouraged to answers questions using different lines of enquiry to view them from different perspectives.
Knowledge and understanding are developed by investigating a range of places, people, resources and environments, together with an understanding of the interaction between the Earth’s key physical and human processes, landscapes and environments. Pupils investigate a range of places – within Britain, Europe and the wider world - to embed, compare and expand their knowledge or views. Through enriching experiences such as re-enactment, fieldwork of the local area, visiting museums and studying artefacts, we can bring this knowledge to life.
Geography in the Early Years
The early learning goals at EYFS aim to guide your child to make sense of their physical world and their community by exploring, observing, and finding out about people, places, technology and the environment. It may seem strange to think about your 4 year old child as a geographer. However, the years from birth to age five provide a first opportunity to see how your child interacts with their environment — and how the environment influences them.
Geography in Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)
Geographical vocabulary is a major focus in Years 1 and 2 as the children begin to develop an understanding of where they live and compare this to another local area and contrast it to somewhere outside of Europe. They will learn about weather patterns in the United Kingdom and hot and cold areas of the world. They will use ICT, world maps, atlases and globes, simple compass directions, aerial photographs and plans, as well as simple fieldwork and observational skills. Immersion is the key!
Geography in Key Stage 2 (Years 3, 4, 5 and 6)
There are four core components to the Geography curriculum in Key Stage 2. Our aim is to ensure that the children have the chance to build on their geographical understanding from Key Stage 1 and use this to further develop their knowledge of our planet and the people on it:
Location knowledge
Your child will use maps to focus on Europe, North and South America, concentrating on regions, key physical and human characteristics, latitude, longitude, countries, and major cities. They will also work on locating the counties and cities of the United Kingdom, and start to explore their human and physical characteristics.
Place knowledge
Children will also examine geographical similarities and differences by comparing the geography of a region of the United Kingdom with a region in a European country, and with a region in either North or South America.
Human and physical geography
Your child will be taught to describe and understand key aspects of geography, for example: climate zones, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, the water cycle, types of settlement, economic activity and the distribution of natural resources.
Geographical skills and fieldwork
Your child will use maps, atlases, globes, digital/computer mapping to locate countries describe features studied. They will use the eight points of a compass, four and six figure grid references, symbols and key (including OS maps) to build their knowledge of the UK and wider world. They will use sketch maps, plans, graphs and digital technologies to present, observe, measure and record data.
Curriculum Documents
Discover more about our Geography Curriculum at Longford Park Primary Academy from the document links below:
gla geog and history overview 25 26.pdf