St Anne's Catholic Primary School

At St Anne's Catholic Primary School, we seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We teach geography to enable children to gain knowledge and understanding of the Earth, key human and physical processes, and believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children at Saint Anne’s are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, their place in it as well as increasing their knowledge of other cultures and societies. In doing so, they learn respect and gain an understanding of what it means to be a global citizen in an inclusive multi-cultural country and world.

The geography curriculum at Saint Anne's enables children to develop their knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can and are used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Through the teaching of geography we aim to:

• Help pupils develop knowledge and understanding of places and themes including patterns and processes.
• Foster children’s sense of wonder of the world around them
• Enable pupils to develop a sense of identity through learning about the UK and its relationships with other countries.
• Develop an informed concern about the future of our planet
• Enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the acre of the earth and its inhabitants
• Teach the skills and knowledge necessary to develop children as geographers
• Encourage learning through enquiry-based projects and lessons in order to develop children’s independent research skills
• Help children understand how to use a map in a variety of different contexts.  

Equality of Provision and Inclusion

All pupils are entitled to access the geography curriculum at a level appropriate to their needs. To ensure inclusion, teachers use a range of strategies. All geography lessons/activities are designed and planned to include all children through a range of different approaches. Lessons are planned to facilitate the best possible outcome for all children within the class. The school makes full use of additional adults who are deployed effectively to ensure that identified children are able to make progress in each curriculum area, according to their full potential.

Enrichment opportunities including international days, special events and trips are also utilised to ensure a fully inclusive and engaging geography curriculum. This is supported through several links with places of geographical interest in the immediate and wider locality which engage the children further through contextual and practical learning activities which parental involvement and support is encouraged.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development;

Spiritual development: Through teaching geography, we can also develop children’s spiritual development. Essentially, Geography is about studying people; where they live and our relationship with the environment. This involves providing children with the opportunities to reflect on their own values and beliefs and those of others. Children may explore what it would be like to live as a refugee, or as a victim of an earthquake or other natural disaster, to living in a different country or on tropical islands. Children have the opportunity to explore their own feelings about the people, culture, place and environments that they are learning about.

Moral development: Through helping pupils to reflect on how the environment is affected by decisions made by people, so that the children can make informed choices in the future. Through discussion, the children learn to appreciate the moral dilemmas posed by introducing changes to the environment (for example, a clean air zone, should deforestation be allowed in a rainforest?) and the effects this can have on the surrounding area.  

Social development: Through helping pupils to understand the need to consider the views of others when discussing localities, settlements and the environment. Work on a locality in a less economically developed country provides an opportunity to discuss social issues. Fieldwork encourages collaborative projects, making the most of different strengths and interests within a team.  

Cultural development: An essential component of Geography is place knowledge. By understanding the features and characteristics of their local area, children understand why it is like that, and can contrast where they live with more distant localities, in this country and abroad. This understanding ensures children are aware of the cultural traditions associated with the place they are studying, as well as our own multicultural society.

Links with UN convention on the rights of the child

Article 2 – all children have these rights no matter who they are and where they live.

Article 29 – your education should help you develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.

Reading in Geography

• Read widely from a variety of texts and other sources of information. Pupils will need need to select, compare, organise and evaluate information from different sources as well as use other skills to distinguish fact and opinion, and to recognise bias and objectivity in sources.
• Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
• Use a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.
• Where possible we will try to link books to topics with other subjects in the curriculum.

Through reading students will develop their language and vocabulary, understanding of geographical concepts, develop their geographical thinking and communicate geographical ideas.