Christ Church CE Primary School
'Let your light shine' Matthew 5:16
‘Geography underpins a lifelong conversation about the earth as a home of humankind’ - Geographical Association
The three geographical themes of Our Local Area, Wider World and Global Warnings provide our children with a deepening understanding of their world.
At Christ Church we believe that the more we know about our world then the more we feel a part of it. We aim to inspire our children about their local area so that children develop a connection to the world that is closest to them and where there is regular opportunity to explore their local human and physical environments. Our central location means that we can easily access Weston woods, the beach and High Street.
As children develop their knowledge of their locality then they can begin to transfer their geographical thinking to the wider world. We secure their geographical thinking to the local area so that they can apply this same thinking to more distant locations. The Wider World theme widens children’s views of other continents and key physical and human features of them.
Our climate emergency needs to be owned by us all and for this reason we have built case studies into our geography curriculum that raise the pressing issues that we all need to understand and own. Our geography curriculum aims to connect our children to the place in which they live and provide them with a developing understanding of the wider world.
In order to develop the children’s curiosity about the world, we as their teachers are enthusiastic about Geography and encourage the children to ask questions about what they are learning, alongside answering key questions. Children learn Geographical skills through practical activities, school trips, discussions, debates, observational activities and written activities. We use the National Curriculum to set objectives and key questions for each topic, which are recorded on a Knowledge Organiser so our children know more and remember more. Every year group studies the main three geography themes and previous knowledge is built upon and deepened.
Our Local Area
We aim to provide our children with an ever deepening knowledge of our locality, our town and the the South West as a region of the United Kingdom so that they feel connected. Viewing our local area through the eyes of a geographer allows our children to know its key features and functions, how its heritage has shaped it, what challenges face it and what makes it unique.
The Wider World
At Christ Church we want our children to develop their rich knowledge of both the human and physical world through the study of the continents of Africa, Europe and North and South America. We want our children to be able to locate these continents, countries and human and physical features on a map and to deepen and grow their understanding of the world.
Global Threats
In this theme we want our children to understand the challenges that present themselves because of the global climate emergency alongside learning about the major natural geographical processes that have and continue to shape our world. At Christ Church, we want our children to be informed of how our world has been shaped by natural phenomena and how these processes are being influenced detrimentally by humanity.
The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at Christ Church are equipped with geographical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world. We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about geography, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future. We want them to develop into active citizens who understand how to be a global citizen and contribute to the sustainability of their world.