Geography Vision 2025 – 2026
Our Approach to Geography
At St Catharine’s, Geography is taught in line with the National Curriculum for England, enabling children to be geographers through enquiry-led, skills-based learning. Pupils work as communities of geographers, asking questions, investigating patterns and processes, and developing a secure understanding of the world and their place within it.
Geography is taught through termly units, which are planned around National Curriculum knowledge and skills and delivered within engaging topic contexts. Geography units are alternated with History, allowing flexibility across the school. Rolling programmes ensure clear progression in both knowledge and skills, so that all pupils revisit and deepen learning as they move through the school. Progression maps and knowledge organisers support coherence and continuity.
Teaching explicitly covers the National Curriculum strands of:
- Locational knowledge
- Place knowledge
- Human and physical geography
- Geographical skills and fieldwork
Children use maps, atlases, globes, aerial photographs, digital mapping and GIS to develop their understanding. Fieldwork is used wherever possible to observe, measure, record and present geographical features within our local area. Teaching is inclusive and uses a range of scaffolds and support to meet the needs of all learners, including pupils with SEND and those who are exceptionally able.
Our approach is underpinned by our Catholic values, particularly Care for Creation, helping children understand how geographical knowledge supports responsible choices and stewardship of God’s world.
Core Aims for Teaching Geography
In line with the National Curriculum for Geography, we aim for all children to:
- develop locational knowledge, including the location of the world’s continents, oceans, countries, key physical and human features, and significant terrestrial and marine locations
- build place knowledge by understanding the similarities and differences between places at local, national and global scales
- understand key aspects of human and physical geography, including climate zones, biomes, rivers, mountains, coasts, settlements, land use and economic activity
- recognise how physical and human processes interact, leading to change over time and varying impacts on environments and communities
- develop competence in geographical skills, including map reading, using symbols, scale, coordinates and digital mapping tools
- use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present geographical information in a variety of ways
- communicate geographical understanding using accurate, subject-specific vocabulary, maps, diagrams, data and high-quality written outcomes
- ask geographically valid questions, think critically and creatively, and apply learning to real-world issues such as sustainability and climate change
- grow as informed, empathetic global citizens who understand their responsibility to care for the world and contribute positively to its future
