Geography

Geography Aims

At Prince of Wales we aim to stimulate a curiosity about the world which will last a lifetime. We believe that children should make connections and celebrate diversity of places and cultures. Children should understand local and global issues and learn the skills to contribute to a rapidly changing world.

Our Geography Curriculum

The children and staff at Prince of Wales have links all over the world. We can proudly call ourselves a ‘global school’. The teaching of geography will focus on understanding these diverse places to foster understanding and develop a sense of identity for our children.
We ensure that the teaching of geography is clearly sequenced and compliments the history units of study. This allows children to make links in their learning and build knowledge. Substantive knowledge is retained through the use of knowledge builders and quizzes and disciplinary knowledge arms children with the skills to learn more independently. In other words….
Substantive Knowledge + Disciplinary knowledge = Geographical

Recognition

We submitted an application for the prestigious Primary Geography Quality Mark, which is run by the Geographical Association. We are delighted to announce our school has won a silver award. The Quality Mark looks at all aspects of curriculum design, teaching and learning and how we use our local area to learn about the world.
The moderator of the submission was impressed to see how our geography curriculum was designed and how we link with history units of study which helps our children to learn more. It has also been recognised that pupils at Prince of Wales learn geography in an effective way. They build on prior knowledge, remember more through quizzes and have access to engaging fieldwork.
The award reflects the hard work of our dedicated staff from Early Years through to Year 6 to deliver engaging geography lessons. Our school community covers some 70 countries and geography helps us to learn more about each other and the world around us.

Teaching

When teaching geography we will exploit our diversity and use these places to compare and contrast where we live here with the places where children have links. This makes learning relevant and fun and we can draw on the richness of our school community.
Geography starts from the child’s immediate environment, beginning with the school grounds. Through visits into the local community, their world is extended through first hand experiences, building up their geographical knowledge and skills.
They then move onto studying places around the word, hot and cold countries, thinking about what it is like to live there, how we can look after our environment and looking in more detail about what our environment is like. In Geography, we encourage children to ask as well as answer questions and offer them the opportunity to use a variety of methods to gain information and develop critical thinking.
Geographical skills, mapping and fieldwork will be taught through utilising our local area like the Royal Small Arms Factory, Wetlands and award winning school grounds.
Perhaps most importantly, geography will be taught in a fun way. Children will be encouraged to make geographical features, plant trees, visit wetlands, rivers and waterways. We believe that these real learning experiences and having fun will make these learning experiences last a lifetime.

Geography Curriculum Overview