Our Geography Curriculum Offer

Geography is the study of the world and our place in it.

We come to truly love a thing as we come to understand it, and to understand something we must first get to know it. We aspire for our pupils to love the world they live in and to appreciate that it will change over time. They learn that some changes they can influence and others they cannot, and being able to think geographically will give our pupils some of the wisdom required to make good, healthy choices in their lives.

At Crowcombe & Stogumber Cof E Primary Schools we strive to deliver a geography curriculum that encourages pupils curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Geography is a unique subject that bridges both the social and the natural sciences and our curriculum reflects the interconnection between these two disciplines. Our intent is for our students to not only acquire geographical facts but to also develop the skills required to think critically and holistically about the world and our place as humans within it, reflecting our school values of generosity, optimism, determination, curiosity and courage.

Curriculum Sequencing and Depth

At Crowcombe and Stogumber we have chosen to weave every geographical learning experience from the “Golden Threads” of the Geographical Association's key concepts. These key concepts are: Space, Place, Environment, Earth Processes, Time, Interconnection, Diversity, Scale, and Interpretation. By fabricating each of our units of study from these golden threads we create a Geography curriculum that is both consistent and varied, and teaches Geography as a distinctive and essential subject for informed citizens of the future. By carefully sequencing geographical knowledge so that students progress from foundational concepts to more complex composite ideas, this gradual increase in challenge ensures that students’ conceptual understanding grows over time. As pupils develop, the connections between these ideas are explicitly taught, helping them make sense of the world around them.

Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge

Substantive knowledge refers to the key domains within geography: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical processes, and geographical skills. Disciplinary knowledge, on the other hand, represents the way geographers approach problems and interpret the world. Here at Crowcombe and Stogumber we aim to balance both these aspects of geographical knowledge, binding them together through the teaching of the Geographical Association’s key concepts, our “Golden Threads”. This ensures breadth and depth in the curriculum, ensuring that students are exposed to a wide array of content, while also developing a deeper understanding of geographical processes. We break content down into manageable chunks that children can master, without overwhelming their working memory - every Geography lesson makes explicit two or three key facts that build up over the unit to form a solid core of substantive knowledge.

Thinking Like a Geographer

At the core of disciplinary knowledge is an ability to think like a geographer, learning to draw upon geographical skills and taking a subject-specialist approach. Our pupils learn to ask, “How would a geographer” look at this place?, with our teachers modelling how geographers question and explain the world, transferring knowledge from one context to another, thinking about alternative futures, and considering the impact of human decisions. Pupils should learn to ask key questions: "Where is this place?", "Why is it here and not there?", "What is it like?", and "How did it get like this?". Our curriculum supports our students in developing the knowledge needed to habitually ask these questions and explore geographical answers. Our golden conceptual threads weave through our approach as geographers. For example, our pupils explore scale, ”zooming in" and "zooming out" at every opportunity, exploring geography at local, regional, and global levels. But scale can refer to impact as well, and our pupils learn about how physical events in one location can have effects far across the world. To think like a geographer at Crowcombe and Stogumber means to learn to look at the world with different eyes.

Fieldwork: Learning Outside the Classroom

Fieldwork is an essential component of geography education at Crowcombe and Stogumber, connecting classroom learning with the complexity of the real world. It involves making observations, collecting and analysing data, and describing findings about the environment. Fieldwork enables pupils to apply their locational knowledge and understanding of human and physical processes. To be effective, fieldwork must be rigorous, with procedural knowledge taught explicitly, including the limitations of geographical methods. Fieldwork is a regular part of our geography curriculum, with a specialist staff member employed to carefully plan opportunities that mesh with our teachers’ classroom learning sequences. These take place in a variety of environments and cover a variety of progressive foci, developing our pupils’ disciplinary knowledge as they travel through the school. Our forest school sessions and local field trips help students put their geographical skills into practice, deepening their sense of place and their understanding of key geographical concepts. In EYFS, for example, pupils will make simple maps of the flowers, special buildings or problems around the school and village, whilst by Year Six our young leaders are using Ordnance Surveys maps to design and lead whole school hikes across our local moorland.

Developing a Global Perspective

Our curriculum encourages pupils to develop a curiosity about the world and its people, fostering an appreciation for diversity. We value our link with the village of Tanjeh in The Gambia, having exchanged staff, letters, stories and experiences over many years. Geography at Crowcombe & Stogumber is also linked to our school values of generosity, optimism, determination, curiosity, and courage, aiming to equip pupils with the knowledge they need to form their values as global citizens and helping them understand their responsibilities and rights within both their local and global communities. Through Geography at Crowcombe and Stogumber, pupils learn about different places, people, resources, and natural and human environments, gaining an understanding of how the Earth and its cultures have connected and changed over time.

Progression and Challenge

In Early Years, pupils begin to develop basic geographical and fieldwork skills through activities such as working with simple map and observing their immediate environment. They study seasonal change, places near and far, and simple interactions between us and the world. This introduction helps them understand the diversity of the world while also building the foundation for future geographical skills. In Key Stage One, pupils engage in hands-on studies of their local area, develop map skills, learn about the British Isles, continents, and oceans, and compare life in rural England with life in rural Gambia. Our pupils begin to appreciate the similarities and differences between cultures and environments, as well as a deeper understanding of the impacts humans and earth systems can have upon each other, fostering their role as global citizens. In Lower Key Stage Two, pupils develop their knowledge by exploring regions across the UK, Europe, and the wider world. Studies of places like London, Skara Brae, and Greece help pupils understand settlement patterns, population diversity, and trade. Mapping techniques and geographical enquiry are central to their learning, alongside studies of physical geography, such as volcanoes, mountains, and rivers. Studies that combine off-site fieldwork and class-based digital systems are developing the children’s disciplinary knowledge base. Time and scale are concepts that grow in importance as pupils compare changes over time and space. In Upper Key Stage Two, pupils continue to develop their geographical skills and knowledge. They explore climate zones, biomes, and vegetation belts, examining human impact on ecosystems, often within focused studies of the American continents. Detailed local settlement studies and comparison studies, such as that of the River Tone and River Nile, help pupils understand the relationship between physical geography and human activity. GIS (Global Information Services), digital mapping, orienteering, and other fieldwork activities enable pupils to explore areas they have not visited, strengthening their locational knowledge and adding layers of disciplinary skills that set them up strongly for their progress into KS3 and an increasingly complex and interconnected world.

Conclusion

At Crowcombe & Stogumber, we aim to deliver a comprehensive geography curriculum that prepares pupils for the future by helping them understand the world around them and how humans are a part of how it works. Through a combination of classroom learning, fieldwork, and a focus on global citizenship, our pupils are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to make informed, responsible choices about the environment and their role in it. As pupils progress through their geography studies, we aim to develop a deep love for the world, an understanding of how it changes, and a sense of our ability to influence those changes in positive ways.

“The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.” – President Barack Obama

Generosity          Optimism           Determination          Curiosity          Courage