Geography

At Coltishall Primary School, Geography helps children understand the world around them and their place within it.

We want pupils to be curious about places, people and environments and to ask questions about how the world works and why places are the way they are.

Geography at Coltishall begins with what children can see and experience around them and gradually broadens their horizons from Coltishall and Norfolk to the United Kingdom and the wider world.

Our Approach

Geography is an investigative subject.

Children explore geographical ideas through questions, observation, fieldwork, maps, data, discussion and research.

Our curriculum develops children's knowledge of:

• places and locations;

• human and physical geography;

• environments and landscapes;

• rivers, coasts, mountains and climate;

• settlements and how people use places;

• the relationship between people and the natural world.

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Alongside this knowledge, pupils progressively develop the skills needed to think and work as geographers.

Enquiry Questions

Our Geography curriculum is organised around meaningful enquiry questions.

These encourage children to investigate rather than simply learn isolated facts.

Questions across the school include:

• What is it like to live in Coltishall?

• Would I rather live in Kenya or Coltishall?

• In what ways are the rivers and Broads important?

• How was the Norfolk coast formed?

• Why do people live on fault lines?

• Why is Norfolk so well suited to farming?

• Why do capital cities have rivers running through them?

• What causes changes in climate?

• Has Norwich always looked the same?

Knowledge Organisers identify the important knowledge and vocabulary children need in order to explore these questions successfully.

Understanding Our Local Area

Our local area is an important starting point for Geography at Coltishall.

Every year group has opportunities to develop geographical understanding through a local study, ensuring that children build a rich knowledge of the place in which they live as they move through the school.

Children investigate Coltishall, Norwich, Norfolk, the Broads, rivers and the Norfolk coast alongside their studies of places further afield.

This enables pupils to compare familiar places with other environments and understand how local Geography connects to national and global patterns.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is an important part of learning Geography.

Children are given opportunities to observe places directly, ask questions, collect information and apply geographical skills outside the classroom.

Our location provides particularly valuable opportunities to explore the River Bure and the Norfolk Broads, and children benefit from links with organisations including the Norfolk Broads Authority.

Through fieldwork, pupils learn that Geography is about investigating the real world rather than simply studying it from a book.

Geographical Skills

Children progressively learn to use a range of geographical tools and sources.

These include:

• maps and atlases;

• globes;

• aerial photographs;

• compass directions;

• grid references;

• field sketches;

• numerical and quantitative information;

• graphs and other data;

• digital mapping and Geographical Information Systems.

As pupils progress through the school, they become increasingly independent in selecting and interpreting geographical information and using evidence to support their conclusions.

Progression

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that children's knowledge and geographical skills build over time.

Children revisit important concepts in increasingly complex contexts, making connections between prior learning and new places or processes.

Their understanding develops from their immediate surroundings towards increasingly sophisticated study of the United Kingdom, Europe, North and South America and globally significant physical and human features.

Human and Physical Geography

Children learn that places are shaped by both natural processes and human activity.

They investigate physical features such as rivers, coasts, mountains, weather, climate, volcanoes and earthquakes, alongside human geography including settlements, land use, farming and cities.

They also explore the ways in which physical and human geography interact and how places change over time.

Geography in the Early Years

In Reception, children develop the foundations of geographical understanding through first-hand experiences.

They explore their immediate environment, notice seasonal change, observe plants and animals, talk about places that are familiar to them and begin to compare different environments.

Children are encouraged to observe, predict, ask questions, solve problems and talk about what they notice.

These experiences provide the foundations for the more formal geographical knowledge, vocabulary and fieldwork skills developed from Key Stage 1 onwards.

Geography Beyond the Classroom

Geography helps children connect classroom learning with the world they experience every day.

Local walks, fieldwork, visits and work with community organisations allow children to apply their knowledge in real places.

Through this combination of local experience and wider study, we want pupils to leave Coltishall with a strong sense of where they are in the world, how places are connected and how people and environments affect one another.