Geography - Alton Park Junior School

Geography

Geography

At Alton Park Junior School we aim to provide a high-quality geography education that inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  Our Geography curriculum, which follows the CUSP curriculum, is built around the principles of cumulative knowledge focusing on the topics of spaces, places, scale, human and physical processes with an emphasis on how content is connected, and relational knowledge is acquired. Geography is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Year 3 through to Year 6 ensuring that important subject knowledge and skills are revisited with increasing levels of challenge, and provides opportunities for pupils to apply and develop their subject vocabulary confidently.

 Aims of the Geography Curriculum

The National Curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • 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, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

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

Our Intent

 By the end of year 6, pupils at Alton Park Junior School will:

Aspiration - be equipped with the geographical skills, knowledge and vocabulary necessary to function in a wider society, recognise their influence, and positively contribute to the world around them. 

Learning - have a wide range of geographical skills, particularly in mapping and fieldwork/local studies.  Pupils will have exposure to exciting and enticing lesson sequences that involve them getting out into the environment. 

Tenacity - have access to geography learning that will have some challenging content. Students will become resilient learners. 

Opportunity -  be exposed to hands-on experiences and different learning opportunities in the geography curriculum. They will recognise potential career paths in the field of geography. 

Nurture – feel included within our world and society as well as nurturing the environment around them.