Davey Drive, Hollingdean, Brighton BN17BF

St Joseph's Catholic Primary, Brighton

Educating in Faith, Hope and Love

                                                                                     Geography                                                                                        

Geography at St Joseph's 

   

At St Joseph's, we aim to provide a high-quality Geography education which will inspire in our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

At St Joseph's, we strongly believe in the importance of connecting children to the local environment. Fieldwork is vital to geographical practice and our school grounds, immediate environment and local environment provide great geographical learning opportunities..

We have currently launched a 'Our City Our World' campaign to raise an awareness to the importance of looking after our world. As a school we have been thinking about ways we can care for our world for future generations. Each class explored this in different ways and thought about how we can make better choices every day.

Reception made banana bread and learn about 'composting'; Year 3 used bags to recycle into flowers; Year 1 tried healthy plant-based alternatives to meat; Year 5 went all day without using electricity; Year 2 looked at the affects of Global Warming and Year 6 made bird feeders and Year 4 Year made rain catchers out of recycled materials. Here are some of our photos below:

       

 

Year 4:

Year 4 have been using geographical skills to locate different countries, continents and oceans using globes and atlases.

          

Below are photos showcasing different strands of the Geography curriculum and it is vital that pupils are equipped with a knowledge and understanding of human and physical Geography as well as the skills needed to achieve this.

 

Geographical Skills:

The National Curriculum states that KS1 pupils should "use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment."

 

Year 2:

Year 2 have been looking at their local area and environment and exploring geographical features of their local surroundings

   

Year 3:

Year 3 have been exploring the Stone Age era and have looked at how the soil has different layers. They looked back at the physical features of the UK and how people used to 'forage' for their food. The children then went foraging in the local area to see which plants and berries they could find.

   

Year 5:

Year 5 have been using medias of wild waters and rivers (music, imagery and clips) to inspire and generate dances.

 

Year R:

Reception located local points of interest on 'Google Maps' e.g. 'H' symbol for hospital, the train station sign, where our school is, noticing bodies of water, roads etc. They went on a journey around the school and drew maps using familiar locations. Then they used prepositional language to describe how the mother owl could get through the forest back to her babies e.g. over the trees, around the mud, through the log pile house e

 

Year 1:

Year 1 are learning about 'Poles Apart' and comparing their local area to a place in the Arctic. They have been exploring weather and physical and human features of Geography e.g. housing, clothes, food and how these people live as well as the landscape.

Year 1 have been observing changes in the Poles first hand by watching the ice melt and can see how the temperature can affect places, people and animals.

Our Geography Overview

Through geographical enquiry, the children will learn about the physical processes and human activities which shape their immediate surroundings as well as the wider world. We aim to raise children’s awareness of their roles and responsibilities in relation to their environment and to help them to develop a sense of identity through learning about the UK and its connection with the rest of the world.

Subject Content
Pupils should be taught; Locational knowledge, Place knowledge, Human and Physical geography and Geographical skills and fieldwork

In Key Stage 1, pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

In Key Stage 2, pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

Click HERE to see the National Curriculum programmes of study for Geography for KS 1 and 2.

   

 

Click HERE to see our Geography Policy Statement

Click HERE to see our Humanities (Geography and History) themes across the school for 2023-2024.

 

    

      

At St Joseph's, we have bought in a new curriculum for the teaching and learning of history and geography across the school. It is called ProspectUs and each class studies three themes during the year - one each term. Each theme is carefully matched to individual subject requirements to ensure a broad and balanced coverage of the national curriculum.


Each termly topic begins with a launch or "stunning start," and then follows a series of lessons that are history and/or geography based which also link to the core and foundation subjects. Although the themes are largely humanities based to meet the requirements of the national curriculum, all of these themes are fully cross-curricular in content, providing a wide range of opportunities for: art, design, music, technology and drama, whilst extending and applying age appropriate English, mathematics, science and computing skills. At the end of each term, the children celebrate their learning with a "fantastic finish."


Alongside the learning in school, pupils are set "POWer Projects" for homework each half term which encourage independent research and topic related activities that can be carried out at home.


In the Summer Term, a ‘whole-school theme’ provides opportunities for all year groups to investigate and explore the same theme from different perspectives.

  Here are some pictures of our Geography learning at St Joseph's.

KS1 's role play areas are often based around their Geography learning. A role play area allows pupils to experience and understand different viewpoints in the context of a particular issue.

   

Year 1's topic is "Poles Apart" and their role play area is an igloo

   

.                                           The Reception Class's topic is "Off on an adventure" Their role play area is a cave!                                                                                                      They can take in a book into the dark cave and read it by torchlight!                                                    

    

Year 2's topic is "Indian Spice." Their role play area is an Indian restaurant. 

Below are some useful websites that will give you more information about the National Curriculum and Geography in the primary school as well as links to websites for your child to support their Geography learning.

Geography at primary school | Oxford Owl

Geography Homework Help for Kids - Woodlands Geography (primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk)

Geography - Topmarks

BBC - Search results for Geography

Google Earth

World Geography Games Online

Online Interactive Maps - Maps of all continents and U. S.