Geography AT DOWNSHALL KEY STAGE 1 AND 2
Subject Leader: Ms Shafi
Introduction
Downshall Primary School follow the national curriculum and adapt the planning and implementation to achieve the needs of the relevant cohort each year.
Using the four cornerstones pedagogy, first quality teaching ensures that the key skills and knowledge are taught memorably to enable learning to be transferred to long term memory. We have designed our Geography curriculum to inspire our pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, which is embedded and built on throughout their experiences. Our pupils are also taught knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, as well as being provided opportunities that move beyond the school experience, through fieldwork. Throughout pupils’ learning, opportunities are provided to make links between prior and new knowledge, thus their growing knowledge about the world leads to helping them to deepen their understanding. Our curriculum is designed to engage our pupils and enable and inspire them to become: inquisitive, resilient, independent, challenging thinkers; and active global citizens with the confidence to use, and build on, their cultural capital, learning and experiences - both inside and outside of the classroom.
Subject Drivers
The subject drivers are what underpin the curriculum that we provide for our pupils and these are embedded within the subjects that we teach. These 'Subject Drivers' are fundamental to our whole school curriculum and all subjects are planned with these in mind.
The Geography subject drivers for pupils are:
- Develop knowledge of globally significant places.
- Understand the impact of humans on the planet.
SUBJECT DISPLAY
National Curriculum
| Topics covered EYFS | Topics Covered KS1 | Topics covered LKS2 | Topics covered UKS2 |
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QUOTES FROM PUPIL Ambassadors
“In geography I enjoy learning about volcanoes and natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.” Alice, Year 3.
“I enjoy geography because I get to investigate new parts of the world I don’t know about.” Joel, Year 4
“I really enjoyed the community planting event because it helped me understand how important it is have flowers and plants in the local area as they purify the air. I also learned that we must look after our local environment by recycling and keep our streets clean. Faiza, Year 5
“I think Geography is a nice subject because it teaches you about other people and how places around the world are different from the UK.” Ayaan, Year 6
Enrichments
We have range of exciting trips every year that links to our geography learning. These include:
- Reception visit to Seven Kings park to explore changes in seasons.
- Year 2 visit around the local area looking at human and physical features.
- Year 3 trip to the Natural History Museum as part of the topic ‘Rocks, Relics and Rumbles.’
- Year 4 workshop on the port of London lead by Thames Explorer Trust.
- Year 5 Geography conference on climate change and map skills workshop lead by Oaks Park High School.
- Year 6 fieldwork in the local area linked to road safety.
- Subject ambassadors community planting in Seven Kings.
Year 5 Geography Conference on Climate Change
Pupils are also given the opportunity to carry out a range of fieldwork and human and physical features, weather patterns and the environment within the school and local area.
We also have exciting visitors that come and visit our school and talk all about Geography. This year we had a special assembly from students at Oaks Park High School where they discussed what they enjoy about geography, the benefits of looking after the environment, interesting places around the world and the importance of tackling climate change.
Downshall’s 2025 Geography Bee winners!
This year we are very excited to be competing for the second time in a Geography Bee competition against other local schools. Pupils taking part in the competition will be learning lots of geography facts to deepen their understanding of the world. They will also take part in a quiz and compete in a series of rounds to see which school will be the ultimate geography champions! We are proud to announce that last year Downshall came 1st place in Geography Bee competition.
Geography Workshop With Oaks Park School
Year 3 took part in an exciting workshop led by Oaks Park High school about Earthquakes. They learned all about how earthquakes are formed by the movement of tectonic plates and looked at how geologists measure earthquakes using a seismograph. Oaks Park pupils and their Geography lead, Ms Freeman spoke about the cause of earthquakes and how some countries around the world have created buildings to withstand earthquakes. They then worked in groups to create their own earthquake proof building using marshmallows and dry spaghetti!
“I learned that the closer you are to the tectonic plates, the more you’ll feel the rumble of the earthquake and that’s why countries that are nearby can also be affected by earthquakes” (Zaynab, Year 3)
“A seismograph is an instrument that can detect if an earthquake is near because it detects the motion of the ground. We tested out the seismograph by jumping all at the same time to mimic the vibrations of an earthquake, it was so much fun!” (Dominic, Year 3)
“My favourite part of the workshop was when we got to make buildings that can stay up when there is an earthquake. We used dry spaghetti and marshmallows to create buildings that can withstand earthquakes and then shook the table to replicate an earthquake in order to test if it would fall. If the building fell it would mean that it was not strong enough to survive an earthquake”– (Joel, Year 3)
Subject Ambassadors Community Planting Event
‘I really enjoyed taking part in the community planting event that was hosted by Redbridge. We chose a spot to plant some Cyclamens and pansies. The Redbridge Planting team told us these are good flowers to plant because they will stay alive during the winter months. When we dug the soil we noticed lots of rubbish such as bottle caps and plastic. We discussed how these things are really bad for the environment as they can take about 50 years to decompose! We also found a banana peel in the soil and discussed how this is very good for plants as they provide nutrients for the soil." Faiza, Year 5.
links to Helpful Websites
Lots of useful resources about the world around us and different countries:
National Geographic Kids - www.natgeokids.com
Royal Geographical Society - www.rgs.org
Key Stage 1 BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zcdqxnb
Key Stage 2 BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zbkw2hv
Here is a website with lots of different Geography games to play. There are some tricky quizzes too!
World Geography Games - https://world-geography-games.com/
Examples of Learning
EYFS Geography display
Year 5 Geography Display on Maps and Fieldwork in the local area
Reception fieldwork study linked to transport in the local area and learning about the Autumn season
Year 1 learning linked to topic ‘Bright Lights, Big City.
Year 2 fieldwork on human and physical features as part of the topic ‘Coastlines.’
Year 3 visit to the Natural History Museum as part of their topic on volcanoes ‘Rocks, Relics and Rumbles.’
Year 3 Fieldwork at Stratford Olympic Park
Year 4 topic ‘Misty Mountains, Winding Rivers.’
Year 5 fieldwork study on allotments in our school area as part of the topic ‘Sow, Grow and Farm'.
Year 6 learning about the polar regions and investigating the rate at which icebergs melt as part of the topic ‘Frozen Kingdoms’.
