"Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?" - Michael Palin 

Geography

At Cranborne Primary School, it is our intention that Geography will inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination for the world and its people which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Our lessons equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.  As pupils progress through the school, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. 

We aim to enable our pupils to better understand their place in the world and their rights and responsibilities to other people and to our planet. We encourage pupils to ask questions about the world and provide opportunities for them to develop geographical skills and knowledge to be able to answer them.

Our vision is that pupils leave with an increased confidence and understanding of geographical facts and vocabulary and that they can think more intelligently about issues such as climate change, food security and where to build new homes. The subject is concerned with real world learning and making sense of the world first hand, or ‘in the field’.

 

 

The teaching of Geography in Cranborne: 

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in Geography, we teach a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Geography is taught as part of a half termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. Although we make meaningful links to other curriculum areas, we believe that children should see Geography as a subject in its own right.  When planning our curriculum, we have thought about its distinctive character as a discipline and ensured that we have woven the concepts that are fundamental to geographical thinking into our curriculum.  Skills needed to be a geographer are taught progressively.  Concepts are built upon, learning is revisited and children’s locational knowledge is built on year on year. 

What knowledge and skills do we teach?

  • Physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes, vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and the water cycle  
  • Human geography, including: settlements and land use and the distribution of natural resources  
  • Our local area and how to care for it  
  • The position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones  
  • How to use and interpret maps, photographs, globes, atlases and computer mapping  
  • How to use the 8 points of a compass.   
  • How to conduct fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in their local environment 

 

All this and much, much more!

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What is in our local area? 

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The Four Components of the Geography Curriculum are:

  1. Locational Knowledge 
  2. Place Knowledge
  3. Human and Physical Geography
  4. Fieldwork and Geographical Skills 

 

At Cranborne, Geography is taught through topics and is often linked with other subjects such as English and History. This cross-curricular approach enables children to build connections and deepen their understanding.

 

For more information on Primary Geography please click on the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-geography-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-geography-programmes-of-study 

 

The Seven Continents song

Listen to us sing our song here! Year 1 learnt about each continent and learnt to locate these on a map.

Can you name and locate the seven continents?

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