'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 diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.'

Barack Obama

What does geography look like at Uplands?

At Uplands Primary School we aim to deliver a geography curriculum that is accessible to all and that will inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, and allow children to develop a better understanding of the world in which they live. We want our children to be open minded individuals who are ready to question the world in which they live and recognise their place and responsibilities within the wider world. We make links in our geography lessons to our five Big Ideas that appear throughout all subjects in our curriculum: environment, similarities and differences, diversity, relationships and changes.

The curriculum is designed to ensure that teaching equips pupils 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. As much as possible, we aim to use our local area including the school grounds to develop the children's learning through practical investigations and studies. The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers make comparisons between geography units previously taught, developing children’s deep understanding of their world. All classes start their lessons with a retrieval practice activity focusing on the key knowledge and key vocabulary about their current unit or a previous unit with the aim to support the children to know more, remember more and understand more. 

Enrichment Opportunities

We enrich our curriculum through relevant trips, visitors to the school and fieldwork studies. In the past, these have included:

• A visit from an explorer/mountain climber
• Local visits to create sketch maps
• Fieldwork studies on local transport, land use, quadrant study on microhabitats
• A weather station and weather reports using green screen videos
• Assemblies on environmental issues

Geography Outcomes

At Uplands, we communicate our learning through a variety of ways. These can include extended written outcomes, essays answering enquiry questions, visual representations, presenting data, sketch maps, PowerPoint presentations, debates and discussions.

Class teachers formatively assess the children’s understanding of the geographical concepts and key knowledge taught throughout their lessons. They also record an overall understanding of key areas at the end of each unit to enable the subject leader and future teachers to have a picture of each child’s learning journey across their time from Reception to Year 6.

Our Local Environment 

Throughout the year, each class has the opportunity to visit the outdoor classroom at the Hawkwood site. We observe the physical features of the area and create sketch maps of the local surroundings. 

End of Unit Outcomes

We have mapped out our geography curriculum to ensure the units build on previously learnt knowledge.  We also encourage our children to make connections between places and compare them by looking at the similarities and differences.  Below we have set out our end of unit outcomes for each year group, the key vocabulary they will learn in each unit and the key learning points that we want each child to retain from each unit.