"The natural world is the greatest source of excitement. The greatest source of visual beauty. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." - David Attenborough

At Compass Primary, we aim for a high quality geography curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. To ensure this, we have designed and implemented a curriculum in collaboration with the National Curriculum and the Geographical Association (https://geography.org.uk/). 

Aims:

Our curriculum ensures all pupils:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
• are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Implementation:

Our Geography curriculum is based on the three main organising concepts which are place, space and environment. At Compass Primary Academy, we have implemented an EYFS to KS2 curriculum which allows pupils to focus on these concepts through:

• locational and place knowledge
• human and physical geography
• the human impact on the environment and its sustainability
• fieldwork, collecting and recording data
• using and creating maps
• cultural awareness and interconnections

Geography is taught across the whole year as a sequence of progressive lessons which maintains the integrity of the subject. However, one full term in the year will have a spotlight on geography, and it will be the key driver of the theme that term. As a key driver, there will be a knowledge organiser introduced at the start of the sequence which children are quizzed on in the penultimate week of the term to assess what knowledge they have learnt. 

When planning, year groups create a medium-term plan which outlines the disciplinary skills and substantive knowledge which must be taught that term.

Our Geography curriculum can be found below.