Ferney Lee Primary School

Geography

Curriculum Overview

"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 exist across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.”

-Barack Obama

At Ferney Lee Primary School our geography curriculum aims to spark excitement and curiosity, facilitate creativity, and plant seeds of critical thinking about the world that will equip our young people not only to confidently make their own way in it; but to realise their own potential as global citizens in inspiring positive change for future generations to come. Through an accessible sequence of study pupils will gain, develop, and deepen their knowledge of the diversity of earth and its people, natural and human environments, key physical and human processes, all whilst generating skills that are transferrable to other areas of the curriculum. Geography is an investigative subject and as such, pupils will be given opportunities to experience using these skills in different contexts which will embed their knowledge, give real meaning to their learning, and in turn enrich their lives now and in the future. 

Geography topics are taught half-termly alternating with History.  It is taught as a stand-alone subject but where possible links are made between the two subjects.  Geography units are taught focusing on the key enquiry question, all learning within a half-term links to the over-arching question framing what will be studied within the series of lessons in the unit.

Learning covers the four main areas of Geography as outlined by the National Curriculum - locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography, geographical skills and fieldwork.  Our curriculum is progressive throughout the school in both knowledge and skills, revisiting and reinforcing what they have learned when appropriate.  We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate their local area of Todmorden so that they can develop a real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.  Along with encouraging them to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the rest of the world, looking for similarities and differences, understanding the importance of diversity, and the need to look after our environment.    We also develop the children’s ability to apply geographical skills to enable them to confidently communicate their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences.