Geography at Our School

At Stockton, we believe Geography is best learned through first-hand experiences and meaningful connections with the world around us. Our geography curriculum inspires curiosity, encourages exploration, and helps children develop a deep understanding of their local area and the wider world.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

We strive to place geographical skills and knowledge into real-life contexts, making learning purposeful and engaging. Wherever possible, children are encouraged to explore the outdoor environment, helping them to understand how geography shapes their everyday lives.

Our local surroundings provide a rich learning resource. We link geographical learning to local natural features and landmarks, enabling children to develop a strong sense of place and an appreciation of their community.

Developing Key Geographical Skills

Throughout their time at our school, pupils develop a wide range of geographical skills, including:

• Using and interpreting maps, plans, and aerial photographs
• Understanding physical and human geography
• Observing, measuring, and recording geographical features
• Using fieldwork techniques to explore the local environment

These skills are carefully sequenced and built upon year by year, ensuring children leave our school confident geographers.

Fieldwork and Exploration

Fieldwork is a vital part of our geography curriculum. Each year, we take part in a dedicated Fieldwork Week, during which children engage in a variety of hands-on activities focused on exploring their immediate environment. Pupils learn how to observe, investigate, and ask geographical questions about the world around them.

These experiences help children develop independence, teamwork, and a real understanding of how geographical skills are used outside the classroom.

Inspiring a Lifelong Curiosity

Through our geography teaching, we aim to inspire children to be curious about the world, respectful of the environment, and aware of their role as global citizens. By combining classroom learning with outdoor exploration, we ensure geography is engaging, relevant, and memorable.

Our Geography Curriculum Intent

Our aim at Stockton-on-the-Forest Primary School is to inspire children’s curiosity, interest and appreciation for the world that we live in. We intend to equip children with the geographical knowledge to develop their skills through studies of places, people and natural and human environments.

As geographers, pupils are exposed to a rich and balanced curriculum that provides them with essential component knowledge and new vocabulary. As pupils progress through the school, they will develop an insight into the links between physical and human processes and how landscapes and environments have changed and continue to change over time. Children will learn their role as global citizens and their place within the world.

Our Geography Curriculum Implementation

Children are given access to a range of resources to develop learning through atlases, digital technology, books, photographs and a range of maps. Through our geography curriculum, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret a range of geographical locations in Britain and across the wider world. We encourage children to become geographers through collecting, analysing and communicating through discussion our findings. Where possible, we ensure cross curricular links with maths and literacy. Geography provides excellent opportunities to support all learning abilities through investigations, outdoor learning and analysing data. We are incredibly fortunate to have a vast amount of outdoor space, including a wild life area and allotment to allow children to be ‘hands on’ with the environment.

Our Geography Curriculum Impact

Our geography curriculum offers high quality and well planned lessons, which are progressive in nature. Geographical questioning helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the world and its people.  Our plans explicitly set out the essential knowledge and disciplinary skills of geography to be taught.

Through our curriculum, pupils learn to think critically and ask perceptive questions. In order to ensure our aims and intent have been met, we scrutinise what children have learnt through:

• Assessing children’s knowledge of key component learning as set out within our planning.
• Assessing the quality of children’s explanation of themes.
• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice conversations).
• Moderation and scrutiny of pupil’s books and professional dialogue between teachers to assess the quality of children’s learning.
• Sharing good practice in staff meetings.
• Marking of written work in books against the school’s marking policy.