Geography Curriculum Statement

Our geography curriculum aims to inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with pupils for life. Through Kapow's Primary scheme, we intend to provide a structured, knowledge-rich, and skills-focused curriculum from Early Years to Year 6. We intend to build pupils' understanding of the world, ensuring progression, curiosity, and confidence in geographical thinking. We aim for our children to leave our school with strong geographical knowledge, confident fieldwork and mapping skills, and a thoughtful understanding of how people and environments are connected across the world.

Our geography curriculum covers:

• Locational knowledge – including continents, oceans, countries, and capital cities.
• Place knowledge – comparing local and global environments.
• Human and physical geography – exploring weather, climate, land use, and settlements.
• Geographical skills and fieldwork – using maps, atlases, globes, aerial photographs, and digital mapping.

Children learn to ask questions, interpret data, and understand how physical and human processes shape the world. We ensure progression in knowledge and skills across year groups, building a strong foundation for future learning.

Geography is taught through:

• A carefully sequenced curriculum – Learning is organised into coherent units that revisit and deepen key concepts such as place, space, scale, environment and interconnection. Each year builds on prior knowledge, helping children to make meaningful links between local, national and global geography.
• A balance of knowledge and skills – Pupils develop core geographical skills including map reading, fieldwork, data interpretation and using geographical vocabulary accurately.
• Practical, hands-on learning – Fieldwork is a central element of our curriculum. Children explore their school grounds, local area and wider community to apply skills in real-world contexts. Lessons often include practical tasks such as compass work, sketch maps, surveys and using digital mapping tools.
• High-quality resources and pedagogy – Kapow lessons include videos, visual aids and structured activities that support strong teacher knowledge. The scheme encourages active learning, discussion and enquiry, helping pupils think like geographers.
• Inclusive and accessible learning – Lessons are designed with built-in scaffolding and extension opportunities so all pupils can succeed and be challenged appropriately. Vocabulary is explicitly taught and revisited to strengthen understanding.
• Cross-curricular connections – Geography links naturally with subjects such as history, science, art and PSHE. Children explore global citizenship, sustainability and cultural diversity, supporting their wider personal development.

Our curriculum is cyclical where pupils return to key knowledge and skills again and again during their time in primary school. Our curriculum increases depth as each time a skill is revisited it is covered with greater complexity to build on learning and prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build upon previous foundations, rather than starting again.

Children develop a broad understanding of the world and the ability to think geographically.

They learn to:

• Use geographical vocabulary confidently and accurately.
• Identify physical and human features.
• Interpret maps, globes and atlases.
• Present information using maps, diagrams and data.
• Observe and record the environment around them.
• Build strong locational knowledge, learn about diverse places and environments.
• Develop map-reading and fieldwork skills.
• Explore topics such as weather, rivers, climate zones, trade and sustainability.
• Make connections between places, people and environments.

Assessment includes:

• Formative assessment: Questioning, discussion, and retrieval tasks at the beginning of lessons e.g. brain dump, recap and recall, fact tennis, mind map, unscramble key vocabulary from previous lessons etc.
• Summative assessment: End-of-unit quizzes and tasks aligned with Kapow Primary objectives.
• Pupil voice: Children articulate learning through presentations and enquiry projects.
• Work scrutiny: Monitoring progression in books and digital portfolios.
• Tracking: Use Kapow’s assessment grids to record attainment and identify gaps.
  
  

This ensures pupils are developing secure geographical knowledge and skills and are well-prepared for future learning.