Geography
What does Geography look like at Brill?
At Brill Church of England School, we believe that Geography helps children understand their place in the world and the connections between people, places and environments.
We want children to be curious about the world around them – from the landscape and community on their doorstep in Brill to countries, cultures and environments across the globe.
Geography forms part of our Brill Horizons curriculum and is supported by Cornerstones Maestro, providing a carefully sequenced progression of geographical knowledge and skills from the Early Years through to Year 6.
Throughout their journey at Brill, children develop knowledge of places, people, environments and physical and human processes, alongside the geographical skills needed to investigate, interpret and understand our changing world.
INTENT
Our Geography curriculum is ambitious for every child.
We want children to develop a rich and increasingly connected understanding of the world – recognising where places are, what they are like, how they are connected and how they change.
Children build knowledge of their local area, the United Kingdom and the wider world, developing an understanding of both physical and human geography.
Our curriculum develops both:
Substantive knowledge – what children know about places, environments, processes and geographical features;
and
Disciplinary knowledge – how geographers investigate the world through enquiry, fieldwork, observation, data collection, mapping and interpretation.
Through our Geography curriculum, we aim for children to:
- develop secure knowledge of significant places and locations;
- understand important physical and human geographical processes;
- recognise similarities, differences and connections between places;
- understand how people and environments influence one another;
- develop secure knowledge of maps, scale and location;
- use geographical vocabulary accurately;
- ask and investigate geographical questions;
- collect, analyse and interpret geographical information;
- develop progressively sophisticated fieldwork skills;
- recognise patterns and change over time;
- understand some of the challenges facing our planet and its people; and
- develop curiosity, respect and responsibility towards the world around them.
We want children to understand that Geography is not simply about knowing where places are. It is about understanding what places are like, why they are like that, how they are connected and how they are changing.
Our children are encouraged to be bold in exploring the world, brave in asking challenging questions and Brill-iant in thinking about how we can care for our planet and its people.
IMPLEMENTATION
Brill Horizons and Cornerstones Maestro
Geography is taught through our Brill Horizons curriculum, supported by Cornerstones Maestro.
Learning is carefully sequenced so that children’s geographical knowledge and skills build progressively from their earliest exploration of their immediate environment in the Early Years through to increasingly sophisticated geographical study in Key Stage 2.
Important knowledge and concepts are revisited so that children can connect new learning with what they already know.
Our Brill Horizons Big Ideas support these connections. Geography particularly draws upon Place and Space, Nature, Humankind, Processes, Change, Comparison and Investigation.
As children encounter these ideas in different geographical contexts, they develop an increasingly connected understanding of the world.
Developing a Sense of Place
Understanding place lies at the heart of Geography.
Children develop knowledge of their immediate locality before extending their horizons to the United Kingdom and increasingly diverse locations across the wider world.
They learn to locate places and develop an understanding of their important human and physical characteristics.
As children’s geographical knowledge grows, they are encouraged to make comparisons and connections between places, considering questions such as:
Where is it?
What is it like?
Why is it like that?
How is it similar to or different from other places?
How is it connected to somewhere else?
How is it changing?
This enables children to build increasingly rich mental maps of the world onto which new geographical knowledge can be placed.
Maps and Geographical Skills
Maps provide children with a powerful way of understanding and representing the world.
Throughout their time at Brill, children encounter and create an increasingly sophisticated range of maps.
They progressively develop skills including:
- locating places using maps, atlases and globes;
- identifying continents, oceans, countries and significant geographical features;
- using directional and locational language;
- understanding symbols and keys;
- using compass directions;
- understanding scale;
- using grid references;
- interpreting different types of maps and geographical information; and
- creating maps and representations of their own.
Digital mapping and other geographical resources are used where appropriate to help children investigate places at different scales.
We want children to become confident users of maps who understand that maps can help us ask and answer questions about the world.
Geographical Enquiry and Fieldwork
Children learn Geography most powerfully when they have opportunities to experience and investigate places for themselves.
Fieldwork is therefore an important element of Geography at Brill.
Children progressively learn how to:
- ask geographical questions;
- observe features and processes;
- identify and record what they notice;
- collect and measure information;
- use maps and plans in the field;
- gather data;
- present findings in different ways;
- identify patterns;
- draw conclusions from evidence; and
- evaluate what their findings tell them about a place.
As children progress through the school, fieldwork becomes increasingly purposeful and independent.
They learn that geographers use evidence gathered from the real world to develop and test their understanding of places and processes.
Geography on Our Doorstep
Our location provides an exceptional environment for geographical learning.
Brill’s rural village setting, school grounds, surrounding countryside and local landmarks provide opportunities for children to investigate Geography beyond the classroom.
Children can observe and explore features of their local environment, investigate land use, consider how places change and develop practical mapping and fieldwork skills within a familiar context.
Our outdoor environment and Forest School experiences further encourage children to notice, question and appreciate the natural world around them.
Beginning with a strong understanding of their own locality gives children a meaningful reference point from which they can compare and understand places further afield.
We want children to know Brill not simply as the place where they go to school, but as a place they can investigate geographically.
Human and Physical Geography
Children progressively develop an understanding of both physical and human geography and, importantly, the relationships between them.
They explore physical processes and features of our planet alongside the ways in which people live, use resources, build communities and interact with their environments.
As their knowledge develops, children begin to understand that places are shaped by a complex combination of natural processes and human activity.
They are encouraged to make connections and consider how decisions and events in one part of the world can have consequences elsewhere.
Our Changing World
Geography gives children important knowledge through which they can begin to understand some of the major issues affecting their future.
Through age-appropriate learning, children explore themes connected to the environment, climate, sustainability, natural resources and the relationship between people and the planet.
We want children to develop knowledge before forming opinions – learning to examine information, consider different perspectives and use evidence when discussing complex geographical issues.
Our Christian values of Compassion, Courage, Honesty and Hope encourage children to think about their responsibilities towards other people and the world we share.
We want children to recognise that they are not simply observers of the world; they are part of it and their choices matter.
Knowledge and Vocabulary
Secure geographical knowledge enables children to think geographically.
Important knowledge and vocabulary are explicitly taught, revisited and applied as children progress through the curriculum.
Teachers make links to previous learning and support children in developing increasingly precise geographical language.
Regular opportunities to retrieve and connect prior knowledge help ensure that learning is remembered, built upon and used, rather than experienced as a series of disconnected topics.
An Inclusive Geography Curriculum
Geography is for every child at Brill.
Teachers use appropriate adaptations, visual resources, maps, practical experiences and vocabulary support so that all pupils, including those with SEND and additional needs, can access important geographical knowledge and concepts.
Children who demonstrate secure understanding are challenged to make increasingly sophisticated connections, interpret geographical evidence, compare places and processes and explain their thinking in greater depth.
We want every child to develop the confidence and curiosity to explore their world.
Geography Across Brill Horizons
Geography naturally connects with many other areas of our curriculum.
Science helps children understand natural processes and environments. History enables them to consider how places and communities have changed over time. Mathematics supports the collection and interpretation of data, scale and measurement, while English enables children to research, discuss and communicate their geographical understanding.
Through Brill Horizons, children are encouraged to recognise and use these connections.
This helps them understand that the world cannot always be divided neatly into subjects – knowledge works together to help us make sense of places, people and the planet.
IMPACT
By the end of their Brill journey, we want our children to see themselves as curious, knowledgeable and responsible young geographers.
We want children to leave Brill able to:
- demonstrate secure knowledge of significant places and locations;
- use maps, atlases and geographical information confidently;
- describe and explain important human and physical geographical processes;
- recognise relationships and connections between people, places and environments;
- compare places thoughtfully using geographical knowledge;
- ask relevant geographical questions;
- undertake fieldwork and gather geographical information;
- interpret data and evidence;
- use geographical vocabulary accurately;
- recognise patterns and change;
- discuss geographical issues using knowledge and evidence; and
- understand that their actions and choices can influence the world around them.
Most importantly, we want children to leave Brill with a genuine curiosity about the world.
We want them to look beyond their immediate surroundings, wonder about other places and people and recognise both the extraordinary diversity and the interconnectedness of our planet.
From understanding the landscape on their doorstep to exploring the wider world, we want every Brill child to know where they are, how they are connected and how they can play their part in caring for the world we share.
Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brill-iant.
