Geography at Sea View
The purpose of study
A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Meet Greta Geography.
Greta is part of our Curriculum Crew who is introduced at the start of each topic and lesson, providing a visual link to lessons and allows our children to focus on the skills needed in the upcoming tasks.
Greta is featured as part of our Geography Pathway Journey - allowing the children to revisit and consolidate prior learning .
Aims
- The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that 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.
2024 - 2025
Nursery
We used our school environment to explore and look for the signs of Autumn. We travelled out of the yard, onto the big field, following the hedgerows along the borders, spotting the changing colours of leaves and berries. We went into the bushes and followed a path along under the trees, seeing what else we could find.We then helped to direct the adults back across the field, through the gate and back into our yard.
Year 2
In Geography we have been learning about the geographical features of the environment. We started by looking at the UK as a whole and learned about the countries, capital cities and surrounding seas. We explored human and physical features and thought about those we find in the UK, our town and further afield.
Recently we used our mapping skills to complete orienteering tasks around school, using the 4 point compass to help us find the location of given points. We have also used iPads and Google Earth to find and locate landmarks from our town.
Year 6
How does the UK compare to North and Central America?
As part of our study of North and Central America, we started by locating the states within the USA. We then became an expert in one state, creating some amazing posters which included information about the weather, the history of the state, the geography and landmarks, the wildlife as well as some fascinating facts.
Time Zones
As part of our North America study, we explored various time zones and compared these to other time zones around the world.
As part of our Stone Age Experience day, we found out about shelters and settlements and how this developed over time. We used some natural materials to try and build shelters of our own, it was a lot trickier than we thought!
2023 - 2024
Nursery
We have been exploring our outdoor environment on our Autumn walk. We followed the path, looking for signs of the changing season, from Summer into Autumn. We followed along the edges of the shrubs and trees and travelled through a secret path, following Mrs Henderson, where we went under branches and up and over a hill.
We read the story 'Naughty bus' and talked about his journey through town and past landmarks. We used real maps of our local area, looking carefully at different streets and drew where we thought our houses and school might be. We also drew symbols to signify places that we are familiar with. We also built towns using our construction resources.
Reception
As part of our 'Ticket to Ride' topic we have been looking at Space, including planets and how you get to them. Here are some of the rockets and planets that we have designed!
We have been reading the story 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. To help our learning we have created our own maps of farms including what animals are in the story. We have learned that maps tell you where things are and can help you go different places.
As part of our 'Amazing Animals' topic we have been looking at tigers. As a group we looked at our own country in the UK then at where tigers live in Asia on Google Earth. As an independent task the we explored this on the interactive whiteboard and were even challenged to find England and China! Some of us were supported in finding where our school is in England.
Year 1
In geography this term we have started to look at our school and our local area.
We have used this opportunity to get outdoors and complete fieldwork activities. The children went for a walk around our school yard and spotted a lot of human features. We then used a range of resources to create a messy map to map out our journey. The children used directional language to describe the location of each feature.
Year 1 have started to look at the geography around them. We have started looking at our school grounds. We looked at an aerial photograph and identified the key features.
We enjoyed using Google Earth to explore our school and the local area and the children were able to label features around us.
We have also talked about different countries that children have travelled to and looked at how far away they are from us.
Year 2
In Geography, during Spring term, we have been exploring our local town. We sorted human and physical features and thought about those that belong to our town. We used maps to locate our school and local landmarks and planned a coastal walk from school. To finish our topic we went on the planned walk and sketched the landmarks we saw along the coast.
Year 3
First we used electronic maps on the ipads to locate Stone Age settlements in Britain. We had a lot of fun using the atlas to locate places in the UK by following the grid references. We used our skills to locate the Stone Age settlement of Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. We then found out all about the weather, the homes and the crops on Skara Brae and how they survived on this landscape and why a settlement was located here. Just for fun, at the end of our lesson, we used our new map reading skills to locate some pirate treasure!
Year 4
We thoroughly enjoyed our Natural Disasters topic this term. We explored how and why natural disasters occur and where they are most likely to happen. We looked at the effects of different natural disasters before writing and recording podcasts about them!
As part of our Romans topic, we researched the Roman roads. We used maps to help us to locate and label the Roman roads.
Year 5
The River Tyne - from source to mouth.
Using Digi maps we used the Geograph tool to track the journey of the River Tyne from source to mouth. We identified the human and physical features and discussed the impact human activity has on the river and the surrounding environment.
Exploring the impact of Coastal Erosion.
We studied maps from 1890 and 2018 identifying the human and physical changes of our coast over time. Using tracing paper we traced the shape of the coast line and were able to identify how much it has receded in the space of 134 years.
Year 5
Women in History.
Amelia Earhart.
With the guidance of Amelia Earhart we investigated and learnt about the difference between longitude and latitude. We tracked her amazing journeys and adventures around the world on her record breaking attempts.
Exploring the Human and Physical Landscape of Scotland.
When Hal reluctantly accompanies his Uncle Nat on the final journey of the Highland Falcon, an iconic royal steam train, he is anticipating a dull, uneventful trip .
As the train wends its way from London to Scotland, some priceless jewellery goes missing. Realising the thief must be on the train, Hal and Lenny decide to investigate, piecing together clues to try to identify the culprit.
Inspired by our class novel we explored the changing and varied landscape of Scotland.
Year 6
How does the UK compare to North and Central America?
Children compared our local area with a chosen region in North America. They compared the climate, the terrain, population, geographical features and the culture.
Children enjoyed working in pairs to choose a country in North America, researching the human and physical geography. Take a look at their fabulous posters...
Capital Cities of North & Central America
We researched and explored the capital cities of North and Central America including their population, area, geographical features, landmarks and culture. We then compared the size of their population and area with each other.
