Geography

At Barnes Primary School, we aim to inspire curiosity and a deep understanding of the world and its people through a high-quality geography education. Our curriculum is designed to ensure all pupils develop both substantive knowledge (key geographical concepts such as location, place and human and physical processes) and disciplinary knowledge (thinking, questioning and working as geographers).

Our curriculum is ambitious, coherently sequenced and inclusive, building progressively from Nursery to Year 6. Learning begins with pupils’ immediate environment and experiences in EYFS and KS1, before widening to the UK and the wider world. Over time, pupils develop a secure understanding of physical processes (such as weather, climate and erosion) and human geography (such as settlement, land use and migration), alongside the skills needed to interpret maps, data and fieldwork.

We place a strong emphasis on:

• Developing curiosity and geographical enquiry.
• Building rich, subject-specific vocabulary and disciplinary language.
• Understanding key human and physical processes shaping our world.
• Applying knowledge through fieldwork and real-world contexts.
• Ensuring all pupils can access and succeed within the same ambitious curriculum.

Our curriculum is underpinned by clearly defined golden threads, including: locational knowledge, place comparison, human and physical geography and map skills and fieldwork. These are revisited each year with increasing sophistication, enabling pupils to make connections and deepen their understanding over time.

Through a carefully structured and spiral curriculum, knowledge is revisited, built upon and applied in new contexts. Pupils move from simple observation and questioning to more complex geographical thinking, including analysing patterns, understanding cause and effect and drawing informed conclusions.

This ensures pupils are well prepared for the next stage of learning, enabling a confident transition to Key Stage 3 where they can engage with more complex geographical concepts, think critically about the world around them and apply their knowledge with increasing independence.

Geography is taught through a carefully sequenced curriculum that enables pupils to build knowledge and skills progressively over time. Learning is structured so that pupils revisit key concepts such as locational knowledge, place comparison, human and physical geography and map skills and fieldwork, allowing them to deepen their understanding and make meaningful connections across the subject.

The curriculum is carefully structured to ensure:

• Clear progression in locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and map skills and fieldwork.
• Knowledge is revisited and built upon over time, so that pupils retain prior learning and apply it in increasingly sophisticated ways.
• Pupils move from simple observation and geographical questioning in EYFS and KS1 to more complex enquiry, interpretation and analysis in KS2.

Teaching is underpinned by:

• Regular opportunities for pupils to retain and build on prior substantive knowledge, including continents, oceans, human and physical features and map skills.
• Explicit teaching of accurate geographical vocabulary appropriate to each year group.
• A strong emphasis on discussion, explanation and enquiry, enabling pupils to explain geographical concepts clearly and ask thoughtful geographical questions.
• Progressive fieldwork and practical enquiry, developing from simple observations in KS1 to data collection, map interpretation and analysis in KS2.

Assessment is:

• Formative and purposeful, drawing on pupils’ discussions, fieldwork, practical enquiry and recorded work in books.
• Designed to identify how well pupils are retaining prior learning, using geographical vocabulary accurately and making connections between places, processes and maps.

Teachers are supported through:

• A coherent progression model that makes expectations clear from EYFS to Year 6.
• Curriculum planning that supports progression in mapwork, comparison, explanation, vocabulary and fieldwork.

Enrichment opportunities enhance learning and include:

• Educational visits and fieldwork experiences across the school, including a train trip in Nursery, a map-based treasure hunt around Barnes in Year 1, fieldwork in the school grounds in Year 2, Richmond Park fieldwork in Year 3, a River Thames boat trip in Year 4, a Barnes walking tour and map work in Year 5, and the Natural History Museum’s Dangerous Earth workshop in Year 6.
• Assemblies linked to green careers, climate action, global geographical issues, climate change and sustainability.
• This ensures pupils experience geography as a relevant, engaging and practical subject, rooted in their local area and connected to the wider world.

As a result of this approach, pupils develop secure geographical knowledge, understanding and fieldwork skills over time.

Pupils:

• Know more and remember more, with knowledge embedded through revisiting key concepts and building on prior learning over time.
• Can recall prior learning, make connections between places, processes and maps, and apply their understanding in new contexts.
• Use geographical vocabulary accurately to explain their thinking and communicate their understanding clearly.
• Understand how the local area connects to the wider world, and use their knowledge to make sense of human and physical features, environmental change and global issues.
• Show increasing confidence in: asking geographical questions, using maps and other sources of geographical information, carrying out fieldwork and presenting geographical data and interpreting evidence and drawing conclusions about places and processes.

Work in books and pupil voice demonstrate:

• Clear progression in knowledge and skills, including increasingly detailed mapwork, comparisons, explanations and use of tiered vocabulary.
• A balance of substantive knowledge, disciplinary thinking and practical fieldwork.
• High levels of engagement, curiosity and confidence in discussing geographical ideas.

Assessment and monitoring show:

• That pupils remember and use prior learning over time, demonstrating secure knowledge rather than fleeting understanding.
• That assessment is purposeful and proportionate, helping teachers identify misconceptions and adapt planning where needed.
• That monitoring, pupil voice, book reviews, lesson visits and CPD contribute to improving teaching and learning in geography.

All pupils, including those with SEND and additional needs, are able to:

• Access the full curriculum.
• Make meaningful progress from their starting points.

By the end of Year 6, pupils leave Barnes Primary as confident, informed learners who are:

• Equipped with secure geographical knowledge about their local area, the UK and the wider world.
• Skilled in using maps, conducting fieldwork and thinking geographically.
• Ready to meet the demands of Key Stage 3 geography.

Curriculum maps