What am I going to learn in Geography?
Year 1 - The UK
During this unit, children will be introduced to the name, location and characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom. They will look at the formation of the Union Jack and identify it as the flag of the United Kingdom. They will look at the physical and human features of the countries within the UK and will use maps to identify coastlines, hills, rivers, lakes, towns and cities. They will identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the UK. Children will use maps and atlases to locate the United Kingdom and will recognise the location of the countries within the UK. As children move through the curriculum, they will have frequent opportunity to use atlases and will become more confident at navigating to find the information they need.
Year 2 - The British Isles
This unit builds on knowledge from Year 1 when children learnt about the United Kingdom and the countries within it. During this unit, children will have an opportunity to consolidate their understanding of the geography of the UK and should be able to use maps to identify the locations of the countries within the British Isles. As children journey through the curriculum, they will learn more and remember more about the British Isles as they study both local and UK geography units of work. Throughout this unit, children will look at the link between the geography of a place and its human features. They will learn about the countries of the British Isles, focusing on key terminology such as port, harbour, coastline, and island. They will become familiar with key geographical features of the British Isles, including mountains and valleys in Wales and The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Year 3 - Rivers and the Water Cycle
This unit builds on children’s understanding and looks closely at rivers. The children will explore how people use rivers, for example, for irrigation, for farmland, for transport and as a water supply. They will consider the impact of less than normal rainfall on rivers, specifically the Mississippi River, and then, in turn, the impact that a drought can have on the people who rely on the river. As the National Curriculum requires, children will be using maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate the rivers, the countries they journey through and to describe their features, particularly their shape and direction of travel. Children will use atlases to locate continents and countries. They will identify rivers and locate the countries the rivers run through. Conceptual understanding of interconnection between humans and rivers will be developed throughout this unit and then built on. Children will learn that humans can use and change rivers in several ways, including through the construction of dams. They will learn that dams are a way for humans to control the flow of water in a river, for water supply and for producing hydroelectric power.
Year 4 - Eastern Europe
This unit builds on children’s understanding of Europe and looks closely at Eastern Europe. Children will build on their knowledge of Europe and explore Eastern Europe in more depth. They will explore the countries of Eastern Europe and key features such as rivers and climate. They will compare the UK with a chosen European country. Children will then study the recent conflict in Ukraine and explore the impact on the rest of Europe. They will locate Crimea on a map of Eastern Europe and discuss why its geography has led to many different conflicts over time. Children will use maps and atlases to locate countries and features of Eastern Europe. They will use their prior knowledge of regions of Europe to identify countries. They will annotate blank maps and use atlases to find information.
Year 5 - Mountains
Building on children’s understanding of natural landforms, children will study mountains in depth. Throughout this unit, children will have opportunities to use previously learnt knowledge of the world, particularly locational knowledge. They will be looking at world maps and relief maps to identify mountain ranges and should be able to use these maps with increasing ease, recognising more places and features as they work through the curriculum. Children will encounter new and ambitious vocabulary, including names and features of mountains, and there will be many opportunities to rehearse and apply new vocabulary in their talk tasks and written work. The concepts and vocabulary in this unit will be built upon in forthcoming units. They will use and apply their geographical skills, such as map reading, interpreting scale, and reading from a key as they learn about places around the world. Over time, children will get better at the skill of map reading as they learn more and remember more about the subject of geography and how it studies the world around us.
Year 6 - North American Geography
This unit builds on children’s understanding of world geography and focusses on the continent of North America. Children’s understanding of biomes will be developed in this unit as they look at the tundra in the northern parts of the continent and the tropical forests of the southern parts of the continent. Children will build on their map skills as they explore maps of North America and develop their research skills using online map tools. They will compare the climate and geography of different locations.
