Geography

Intent

In Geography at Western House Academy, we intend to enhance children's knowledge and insight into the world through texts selected to promote natural inquisitiveness and fascination. Our curriculum is structured to be progressive across the entire school, systematically embedding the skills and knowledge mandated by the National Curriculum. This acquisition of geographical skills and understanding will ensure children are well-equipped for their future endeavors.

Through our high-quality teaching, we aim to:

Value: Inspire a deep sense of wonder and curiosity about the world, fostering an appreciation for environmental stewardship and global responsibility.
Knowledge: Equip pupils with secure, progressively layered knowledge of globally significant places, key physical and human processes, and a rich, specialized vocabulary.
Equality: Promote cultural awareness and empathy by studying diverse places and people, exploring issues of social justice and geographical inequality at different scales.
Experience: Provide regular, meaningful fieldwork opportunities to collect data, apply skills, and connect classroom learning to real-life environments and contemporary issues.

To ensure an equitable curriculum, our intent is for Geography to be fully inclusive and accessible to every pupil, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and those who are disadvantaged. We ensure learning is differentiated to meet individual needs, allowing all children to successfully build geographical knowledge and skills. Furthermore, our curriculum actively promotes diversity and mutual respect by selecting case studies and resources that represent a wide range of global societies, cultures, and landscapes, ensuring all pupils see themselves reflected in the world they study.

Implementation

At Western House Academy (WHA), the Kapow Primary Geography scheme is the core resource for curriculum planning, ensuring comprehensive coverage of knowledge and skills across all year groups. This scheme's detailed lesson plans and resources are directly used by teachers to deliver engaging and progressive lessons, making sure that geographical concepts and skills build systematically term after term. Geography is delivered during the first half of every term, with pupils dedicating two hours per week to the subject. This time is structured to ensure a balanced approach: sessions dedicated to deepening knowledge, application of geographical skills and practical inquiry. Knowledge acquisition is enriched through the use of high-quality, age-appropriate reading texts, local field trips, while key skills—including map reading, data interpretation, comparative analysis, location identification, and understanding of scale—are systematically developed.

EYFS

The EYFS units provide a solid foundation of geographical skills, knowledge and enquiry for children which consist of a mixture of adult-led and child-initiated activities.

In Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

Pupils are taught to:

Build foundational locational knowledge of individual places and local environments, extending this awareness to key areas within the UK and the wider world.
Demonstrate understanding by accurately describing places and features studied, utilising basic geographical vocabulary, and identifying simple similarities, differences, and patterns within the environment.
Investigate places by asking and answering simple questions, making direct observations, and using fundamental sources like simple maps, atlases, globes, images, and aerial photographs.

In Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)

Pupils are taught to:

Develop a detailed and extensive spatial framework of the world, including globally significant physical and human features and an awareness of current events in the news.
Analyse places in detail, understanding their characteristics, why they are similar or different, and the processes driving change. They will grasp key spatial patterns in human and physical geography, the conditions influencing these patterns, and the interconnections between people, place, and environment.
Conduct geographical inquiries using a broader range of questions, skills, and sources, including diverse maps, graphs, and images. They will articulate and justify their own conclusions, while also recognising and respecting alternative viewpoints.

Impact

The effectiveness of our Geography curriculum is demonstrated by a successful cohort of students. The curriculum is thoughtfully designed to be developmentally appropriate and highly interconnected, explicitly mapping the student journey to ensure the continual accumulation of knowledge and skills across three essential pillars: 'Locational and Place Knowledge', 'Conceptual Understanding of Processes', and 'Geographical Enquiry'.

Finally, students have multiple reliable methods available to them to showcase their learning and demonstrate mastery:

Low-stakes retrieval practice (quizzes)
Structured peer and teacher discussion
Quality evidence captured in pupil workbooks
Assessment against the intended learning outcomes.

We want our children to leave WHA as globally aware citizens who possess a deep curiosity about the world and its diverse people, places, and environments. They will be equipped with the geographical skills and conceptual knowledge necessary to confidently interpret complex global challenges and contribute positively to a sustainable future.