Subject Leaders
Mrs Tighe, Mrs Cook and Miss Sharpe (EYFS)
Our Geography Curriculum Intent
Geography is the subject which explores the world that we live in now, what it was like in the past and what it might be in the future. At St Thomas More, we are proud to say that our curriculum inspires pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the world and the people who live in it – learning which will remain with them and help to develop a lifelong love of this subject.
Spatial sense is at the heart of our geography curriculum and is built upon and developed each year. Spatial sense is an understanding of location both locally and globally. Our children develop their positional and locational knowledge of globally significant places including The UK, China, India and Australia defining their physical and human characteristics. Each year, children develop and acquire new mapping skills such as: identifying continents, countries and cities on different types of maps, drawing maps and identifying key features on a map or globe. They study physical and human features of the world, how these are interdependent and change over time, including work around climate change, global warming, mountains, rivers of the world and the North and South Poles.
In lessons, children use a range of resources including atlases, maps, globes, aerial photographs and ICT. They investigate, compare and contrast different places and processes to develop a deeper understanding of how the world works. Our aim is by the time our children leave us in KS2 that they are cartographers.
Our children build on their geographical skills year on year through a range of classroom based and practical experiences. Our children are given opportunities to collect, analyse and communicate a wide range of geographical information in creative and interesting ways. During these activities, children map, sketch, measure and record including the use of digital technologies. This approach to the local area ensures our children are aware of their local community and develop their relationship and respect for the area they go to school in.