Geography

Yearly Overview

In Year 1,  the children develop their knowledge of physical geographical features through drawing simple picture maps of an imaginary woodland within the topic ‘The Enchanted Woodland’.  This includes features such as evergreen and deciduous trees, paths, clearings, grassy patches, a stream, gates, fences and dens. They learn to create a simple key and extend their learning by building their mini woodland in sand and mud trays.  

Within the topic, ‘Bright Lights Big City’ they use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the UK and its countries, as well as countries, continents and some oceans.  

During the Summer term the children learn that a settlement is a place where people live and work and can be big or small, depending on how many people live there.  They find out about the differences between towns and cities and investigate different types of urban settlements.

In Year 2, within the topic ‘Wiggle and Crawl’, children use maps and satellite imaging to identify seas and oceans surrounding the UK and make simple sketch maps using this information.  They also create a colour key to show the different weather in the places Captain Cook went on his journey around the world.  They locate Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and the province of Newfoundland on a world map or globe and look at real and imaginary treasure maps to identify a range of human and geographical features. At the end of the topic, they make an imaginary treasure map, adding lots of exciting features with pirate themed names, include a compass for describing locations and create a simple key.  

In the topic ‘Street Detectives’, the children undertake some fieldwork in the local area, collecting data about human features, including shops, libraries, housing, car parks, bridges, schools and churches.   They also use satellite imaging tools to look at a number of aerial images of the local area and describe what they can see.  

In the topic ‘Scented Garden’ children learn where Brazil is on a map and use atlases to make comparisons about terrain, weather, size, population and environment between Brazil and the U.K.

In Year 3, the Mighty Metals topic gives the opportunity for children to identify and plot on a world map: latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle.  They discuss what different time zones are and research where metals come from for a brochure produced at the end of the unit.  

As ‘Urban Pioneers’, the children identify a local urban location using an Ordnance Survey map and use four-figure grid references to locate significant human features.  They then use these skills to plan a local school trip, identify the route they will take and the different things they would like to see.  This culminates with the children writing a one-minute promotional speech explaining what is great about their city or town to showcase their geographical learning journey.  

In the unit ‘Tremors’ the children use a world map, globe or atlas to identify the locations of volcanoes, including the remarkable ‘Ring of Fire’. They also make simple sketch maps to show volcano locations, indicating main towns, cities and continents, oceans and other significant geographical features.

In year 4, the children learn about mountains in the ‘Misty Mountains Sierra’ topic. They learn about the five main mountain types and find out how mountains are formed. They then have an opportunity to build the different types of mountains, using soil, sand and other soft materials, making sure that each mountain type is the correct shape.  They then go on to explore a range of contour maps to see how height is represented and how these lines can be used to imagine what the land actually looks like.  They have fun demonstrating how plants grow in vegetation belts, which are characterised by different temperatures, altitudes and other conditions, using a range of found materials, including grass, stones, moss, leaves, sticks and other found natural items to represent these zones on a mound of earth or sand.  

In the topic ‘Burps, Bottom and Bile’ the children explore and learn about the three stages of a river.  They trace the journey of the River Trent to its mouth at the Humber Estuary. As the children track the river’s journey, they note down any physical and human features they can see and record these.  

In Blue Abyss the children use maps, globes, aerial images and atlases to identify the world’s oceans and seas, identify their position in relation to the Equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.  They then, locate the Great Barrier Reef using maps and satellite images, identifying significant land features, towns, islands and the different reefs themselves.

The Year 5,  ‘Allotment’ topic gives the children the opportunity to use a local council website to identify the locations of other allotments in the area.  They use Ordnance Survey or online maps to find out the size of each allotment plot and the key geographical or human features nearby.  Later in the unit, they annotate world maps to show the origins of some fruits and vegetables and find out about different types of farming are in the UK., drawing a sketch map of the UK showing the different regions in relation to where they live.  The final piece of work in this topic is a fact file about farming practice in the UK, considering how geography has influenced this.  

In the topic ‘Alchemy Island’ children learn about the eight points of a compass. They are introduced to four and six-figure grid references, using them to locate places on an Alchemy Island map. They go on to use compass knowledge to compare different countries on a world map and plot routes.   

Within the topic ‘Scream Machine’ the children locate the most popular theme and adventure parks on a map of the UK and find out where they are in relation to urban and rural features and transport links. They work out which theme park is nearest and plan a trip, outlining the route that they would need to take from home.  This feeds into their final project, which is to create a brochure including this geographical information. 

The Year 6,  ‘Blood Heart’ topic gives children the skills to locate where different London Marathon winners are from on a World Map and where other marathons are run across the United Kingdom. They then look at where marathons take place around the world locating these on a world map and using grid references to mark locations.  

In ‘Frozen Kingdom’ children use globes and atlases to find and name both polar regions and other significant geographical features of the world.  They make a simplified global map showing the locations of these features with a key and identify and record the longitude and latitude of both polar regions.  They then work in research teams to identify the similarities and differences between the Arctic and Antarctic, recording data and information in simple charts, tables or spreadsheets, using headings such as Climate, Population, Settlements, Animal life, Plant life and Seasonal change.  

‘Darwin’s Delights’ provides children the opportunity to use physical and online maps to plot the route that Darwin took on HMS Beagle, highlighting places that he visited, including the Cape Verde Islands, the Falkland Islands, the Galápagos Islands and Ascension Island.  They find the longitude and latitude for each place and explain how it relates to the Equator and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and use scaled maps to estimate how far Darwin travelled in total.  Using this knowledge, they plan an expedition across the Galápagos Islands that will help them take in the incredible sights and sounds. 

In the topic ‘ID’, the children find places within the local area and use satellite imagery to look at a number of different geographical locations and environments further afield. They discuss, as a group, their individual preferences for places to spend time anywhere in the world.