Geography Vision Statement

At St Peter’s we feel it is important to nurture and encourage a natural curiosity, to shape and direct it to develop inquisitive, questioning learners who look closely at the world around them and begin to be able to interpret what they see. Children are encouraged to make choices, particularly when carrying out research about the world and its physical and human features.

Our children engage in real life experiences such as fieldwork, mapping routes and educational visits which inspire further exploration of their environment and help them to develop an appreciation of their place in the world.

Through the understanding of maps and features of the environment, children are encouraged to work together in teams and share personal experiences to gain a better understanding of their local area and beyond. Children practise and progress in skills and knowledge, raising confidence and growing in independence to be able to collect, interpret and communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.

By comparing British culture and its economy to that of other countries we aim to give the children an understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments.

Running through all of our geography work at St Peter’s is the idea that we are motivating and inspiring our children to deepen their knowledge about their world, both physical and human, so that they can take an active part in contributing to and protecting this world as they grow up. Children's knowledge is assessed at the start of particular units in order to see if this has been embedded in previous year groups. This will ensure lessons are sequenced and built upon what has previously been learned. Teaching strategies are used in lessons to regularly check the children's knowledge using growth mindset strategies. Adaptations are made to suit children of all abilities and support is given where possible.

2023 - 2024

The children in Reception have been learning about the North and South Pole and created a small world play with Arctic animals. They are beginning to know that these are the coldest places in the world and that polar bears live in the North Pole.

Jos enjoyed looking at the world map and noticed where you would find different animals in the world.

Emmie recognised the sea and the land and she loved searching for the different animals around the world

Year 3 Identifying where Hadrian’s Wall is on a map and how it has changed over time.

The children have made Chinese Lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Year 1

We followed verbal directional instructions in the playground. We then looked at the features on a map and decided where they were using the words near, far, left and right.

Nursery

In the provision the children helped themselves to a map and had an in-depth conversation about what was on there.

The children instructed the Beebot to go forward , back, left or right a number of spaces in order to travel from one part of a farm to the next.

Nursery 

The children decided that the car needed a map to follow so they drew their own in the provision.

William chose to make a river in the sand.

Reception children made sandcastles at the seaside, swam in the ocean and also roleplayed in the seaside cafe and shop. They also made a lighthouse after listening to the Lighthouse Keepers Lunch and enjoyed passing messages to Mr Grinling in the story.

Year 1

We explored the school grounds looking for human and physical features.

Geography 

We looked at google maps to see where school is. We talked about other landmarks we could see. We then looked for human and physical features in Fulwood.

Year 1

We explored the compass. We found North, South, East and West.

In Year 6 we have looked at real maps and created our own directions for travelling from place to place and looking at real directions for a local walk. 
We have recorded what we found in certain grid references too. 

Year 1

We worked in pairs to explore the compass.