Geography at Ledbury Primary School

Put simply, geography is about understanding the world by: comparing locations; investigating; researching different sources; writing and talking about places; asking and answering questions. Geography also involves many transferable skills, such as research, observation, measurement, recording and presentation. Geography helps children to make sense of their world.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

This is a child's first opportunity to think about how they interact with their environment — and how the environment influences them. The early learning goals guide your child to make sense of their physical world and their community by exploring, observing, and finding out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Key Stage 1

In Years 1 and 2, your child will be asked to begin to develop a geographical vocabulary by learning about where they live. They will learn about weather patterns in the United Kingdom and hot and cold areas of the world. They will use ICT, world maps, atlases and globes, simple compass directions, as well as simple fieldwork and observational skills. 

Key Stage 2

In Years 3 to 6, there are three focus areas:

• Locational knowledge
• Place knowledge
• Human and physical geography

Locational knowledge examines latitude, longitude and time zones. The children use maps to focus on Europe, North and South America, concentrating on regions, key physical / human characteristics, countries, and major cities. They also work on locating the counties and cities of the United Kingdom, and start to explore their human and physical characteristics.

Children also examine geographical similarities and differences by comparing the geography of a region of the United Kingdom with a region in a European country, and with a region in either North or South America. This is part of the place knowledge aspect of the curriculum.

For human and physical geography, children will be taught to describe and understand key aspects of geography, for example: climate zones, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, the water cycle, types of settlement, economic activity and the distribution of natural resources.

• be aware of how the relationship between people and the environment is important.
• understand some physical processes.
• be skillful map readers, using grid references with ease.
• experience, enjoy and learn from fieldwork experiences.