Here at St. Mary’s, our Geography curriculum inspires children to have a natural curiosity about the world and its people, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Through our ambitious teaching in a range of skills, children are equipped with knowledge about the world’s diverse places, people, resources and natural/human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. 

As pupils progress through the school, their growing geographical knowledge helps them to deepen their understanding of the link between physical and human processes, and of how landscapes are formed. From the geographical knowledge, skills and understanding of our world, they have the ability to make informed choices throughout their life and consider the impact it could have on others.  

We take pride in linking our geography lesson to our school values, for example, we give the children an understanding of the diverse world in which we live and the range of faiths within our community and the wider world. 

At St. Mary's we have developed our geography curriculum by using the Kapow scheme. 

The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under five subheadings or strands:

 • Locational knowledge

 • Place knowledge

 • Human 

 • Physical geography 

 • Geographical skills and fieldwork 

Kapow Primary’s Geography scheme has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these strands across each year group. Our progression of skills and knowledge document shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. 

The Kapow Primary scheme is a spiral curriculum, with essential knowledge and skills revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout each unit, allowing children to make connections and apply their Geography skills to other areas of learning. Our enquiry questions form the basis for our units, meaning that pupils gain a solid understanding of geographical knowledge and skills by applying them to answer enquiry questions. The scheme has been designed to ask open-ended questions with no preconceived answers and therefore they are genuinely purposeful and engage pupils in generating a real change. 

Each unit contains elements of geographical skills and fieldwork to ensure that fieldwork skills are practised as often as possible. Kapow Primary units follow an enquiry cycle that maps out the fieldwork process of question, observe, measure, record, and present, to reflect the elements mentioned in the National curriculum. 

As children move into KS1, they build on the work done in Early Years, developing their locational awareness, geographical skills and knowledge of physical and human geography. As well as learning about Chesterfield and the local area, children enjoy having the opportunity to learn about different countries and places around the world. 

Fieldwork includes smaller opportunities on the school grounds to larger-scale visits to investigate physical and human features. Developing fieldwork skills within the school environment and revisiting them in multiple units enables pupils to consolidate their understanding of various methods. It also gives children the confidence to evaluate methodologies without always having to leave the school grounds and do so within the confines of a familiar place. This makes fieldwork regular and accessible while giving children a thorough understanding of their locality, providing a solid foundation when comparing it with other places. 

Children have lots of opportunities for fieldwork at St Mary's. 

Teachers make regular use of the school grounds.  This allows children to explore within the confines of a familiar place. 

Children also love the fieldwork opportunities off site in the local area such as visiting Linacre Reservoir, the Chesterfield canal, Holmebrook Valley Park and the Longshaw Estate. 

If you come to our school, you will see our enormous world map in the Geography area. Children often come here at the start of a topic to locate areas they are learning about and see them in relation to the rest of the world. It is also a fun place to stand and imagine travelling the world... where can geography take you?