Geography

Battle and Langton Geography Curriculum

Overarching themes and intended endpoints of the geography curriculum:

There are essentially three threads that run through the geography curriculum:

Locality and a sense of place:  From early in the curriculum children develop a sense of our locality; from the geography of the school, to the town, to the nearest large town.  They develop a sense of where they are in the world physically by studying locational knowledge of their surroundings and other areas.  They learn to compare the region we live with other national regions and use this learning to compare life in other countries around the world.   Here they study maps of our area and country, which begins by drawing simple maps, leads to studying digital maps and ends with the ability to read and follow an OS map. 

Geophysical processes:  An important element of the curriculum is to learn to make sense of phenomena that happen everyday in our locality, and later around the world.  They learn about weather and climate both in our own locality and around the world. The importance of latitude on a country, and how this impacts climate and seasons.  Later they learn that latitudinal disadvantages occur that create challenges for the humans living in the zone.  They learn the constituent parts of the earth and understand the importance of the tectonic model on the shaping of the Earth’s surface.  They learn the cyclical nature of the Earth’s processes, including the water cycle and the rock cycle.  

Country Studies:  Building on the knowledge of locality and geophysical processes, children will study a variety of different countries during the course of their Primary schooling.  Each country study is carefully chosen to ensure that they can relate latitude to climate and biome, as well as study the impact of geography on the human population that live there.   Through studying digital maps, and applying previously learnt knowledge, they recognise how the geophysical processes have impacted life for humans, and the way that humans have adapted to these circumstances. 

Connected Learning Concepts:

Continuity & Change:  Children are asked to focus on how things have changed over the course of time.  This often begins from within living memory: asking children to look at digital maps of Battle high street and identifying things that have changed since the map was made.  It also looks at the macro changes made by geophysical processes over millennia.  This thread leads to looking at how places have changed overtime, due to geophysical and human factors, such as the changes in employment in Llanberis, or the impact of tourism on the Atacama Desert people.  We teach children to empathise with people in other spaces and times.

Similarity & Difference:  Children study their own environment as well as that of ‘foreign lands’.  Whilst studying life in other countries, children learn what is unique about that environment and how this is driven by geographical features, but they also learn to appreciate what is the same.  They learn that although the people of the Atacama desert, Sierra Leone or Arctic Norway have many different aspects of life to live with, ultimately they have the same human needs and desires as we do.

Cause & Consequence:  Children learn how seemingly unrelated aspects of the world are connected and inter-reliant.  They learn how the position of the country on the globe impacts life in its totality.  They learn how climate and seasons are related to the Earth’s position, and the latitude of the country.  They learn how tectonic movement of the Earth causes changes in the land formations.  They also begin to look at the consequences of climate change.

Website Geography

For further information about the curriculum please speak to your child's teacher or make an appointment to see Mr Alexander