Geography

At Christ Church, Geography helps children to understand the world around them: its places, people, environments and processes. Through a carefully sequenced curriculum, pupils build secure geographical knowledge, beginning with their own classroom, school and locality before extending their understanding to the United Kingdom and the wider world.

Our Geography curriculum is designed to help children see that places are connected and constantly changing. Pupils revisit important knowledge and skills so that their understanding grows from Nursery to Year 6. They learn to locate and compare places, investigate environments, understand physical processes, explore how people use and change the world, and recognise the growing interdependence between communities and environments.

Geography at Christ Church also supports our school vision: “Together, we flourish.” Children are encouraged to be curious about the world, respectful of different people and places, hopeful about how environments can be cared for, and perseverant when investigating complex questions. They learn that geography is not simply a list of place names, but a way of observing, questioning, explaining and making thoughtful choices about the world we share.

Our Three Key Geography Schemas

To help pupils make meaningful connections across year groups and geographical contexts, our Geography curriculum is organised around three key schemas. These act as “threads” that run through the curriculum, helping children to build, revisit and deepen their knowledge over time.

	‘Maps & Fieldwork’ is the foundation of geographical enquiry. Pupils learn where places are and how geographers find out about them. They use maps, globes, atlases, aerial and satellite images, digital mapping and Ordnance Survey maps, developing their use of compass directions, symbols, keys, scale, grid references, latitude and longitude. Through fieldwork, children learn to ask geographical questions, observe carefully, collect and record information, present findings, identify patterns and evaluate what their evidence shows. As they move through school, they become increasingly independent in choosing appropriate geographical tools and using evidence to explain places from the local area to the wider world.
	‘Earth Processes’ helps pupils understand how the physical world works and changes. Children begin with weather, seasons and familiar physical features before developing knowledge of climate, climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts. They learn about the water cycle, rivers and coasts, mountains, tectonic plates, volcanoes and earthquakes. As their knowledge deepens, pupils move from naming and describing features to explaining the processes that create them, identifying patterns in where they occur and understanding how physical processes can create hazards, shape landscapes and influence life in different places.
	‘People & Places’ helps pupils understand how people live in, use, change and depend upon places. Children explore localities, settlements, land use, jobs, tourism and migration before moving into food production, natural resources, economic activity, trade, globalisation and supply chains. They compare places carefully and learn that people can experience the same place in different ways. Through this schema, pupils develop an understanding of interdependence: environments influence how people live, while human choices can alter environments locally and globally. Sustainability is woven through this learning as pupils consider how needs can be met while caring for people, places and the future.

Working Like Geographers

Alongside these three schemas, pupils develop the skills needed to think and work like geographers. They ask geographical questions, observe places and environments, use maps and photographs, undertake fieldwork, collect and measure data, present information in different ways, identify patterns and compare places. They learn to use evidence to explain why places are the way they are and to consider how physical and human processes are connected.

As children progress through Christ Church, they become increasingly confident in using precise geographical vocabulary, selecting appropriate maps and data, explaining their thinking and making connections across the curriculum. By the end of Year 6, our aim is for pupils to leave Christ Church able to locate and understand significant places, explain key physical and human processes, carry out purposeful geographical enquiries, and think carefully about interdependence, sustainability and their own role in caring for the world.