Vision

The geography curriculum at New Haw will inspire children to develop a lifelong curiosity, fascination and love of the world in which they live.  It will develop them as global citizens by allowing them to explore their own place in the world, their values and their responsibilities to people, the environment and the sustainability of our planet.  In addition, pupils will be equipped with the knowledge, skills and understanding to make sense of their world and to face the challenges that will shape future societies and environments - on local, national and global scales.  As well as gaining a global perspective, children will know and understand their local environment, making observations and posing questions about how human and physical factors have shaped its development. 
New Haw geographers will become increasingly confident in, and competent at, identifying continents, countries and major world cities, as well as naming and locating the counties of the UK.  Year on year, they will build both their geographical skills and knowledge.  Children will become naturally inquisitive and evaluative about how physical and human geography affect their everyday lives.  Furthermore, they will become confident at expressing their opinions, using key geographical terminology.  Children will develop a strong set of fieldwork skills, allowing them to become fluent in more complex, geographical enquiry, as well as being able to present and explain their findings. 

Curriculum design

Curriculum Map

Rationale

The geography curriculum at New Haw is designed to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of place, by allowing them to first explore their own locality in order to understand the geographical features that exist within it and, additionally, how it has been shaped by both human and physical factors.  

This knowledge is subsequently applied when other places are explored at a national and global level.  As the curriculum moves from the local to the global, care is taken to ensure that pupils remember, and apply, prior learning.  The well-structured, cumulative curriculum enables pupils to develop a deeper understanding of the complex interconnectedness that exists between places and both the human and physical factors which shape them.  This allows the children to leave us with a clear sense of their place and impact on the world, as well as all of the knowledge and skills they need to successfully access, and benefit from, the key stage 3 geography curriculum.

In Year 3, through the comparative study of New Haw and Greece (linked to the history topic of Ancient Greece), pupils are introduced to the key concepts of physical and human geography, and how these are inter-related.  This conceptual understanding is then developed throughout each subsequent topic.

Climate and biomes are introduced in Year 4, with explicit connections and comparisons being made between climate and human activity within New Haw (and England) and localities within other climate zones.  The children then look in detail at the settlement of New Haw, studying how physical and human factors have influenced its development and growth over the 20^th century. 

A global perspective is adopted in years 5 and 6.  Pupils learn, understand and examine topographical features of the world, such as rivers, volcanoes, mountain formation and tectonic activity.  They also evaluate the more complex factors which shape places, exploring economic influences and trade links.

Explicit fieldwork and mapping skills are taught within each year group, again in a cumulative sequence.  Pupils are then able to increasingly use these skills within geographical enquiry.