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.

Barak Obama

At Christ Church Primary School, we believe that Geography inspires curiosity about the world, its environment and its people. As a school, we feel it is important to nurture and encourage our children’s natural curiosity in order to help turn them into inquisitive, questioning learners who look closely at the world around them and begin to be able to interpret what they see.

At our school, we believe that it has never been more important for children to have a comprehensive global understanding of the world and the people and cultures that inhabit it. Through understanding geography and the complexity of our planet, we believe that our children will develop respect for the physical environment and the diverse range of cultures and beliefs that make up our world.

As a school, we aim for children to experience high-quality Geography learning through a wide variety of experiences, including, practical activities, discussion and reflection. We believe that Geography should be an enquiry-led subject, with children answering questions about the world around them and by making conclusions based on their own observations and field work experiences. Furthermore, at Christ Church, we aim for the children to have a strong understanding of the human and physical geography of their own locality, and for them to use this knowledge to make links with different regions of the UK and the world.

We believe that Geography should be purposeful, with children building upon their key geographical skills throughout a topic and applying these in an enquiry-led project that highlights their understanding. We aspire to immerse our children in current world issues, such as the impact of climate change and ocean pollution. We also encourage our children to reflect upon their own actions so that they see how they have a moral responsibility to look after our world. Indeed, running through all of our Geography work at Christ Church is the idea that we are motivating and inspiring our children to find out about their world, both physical and human, so that they can take an active part in contributing to and protecting it as they grow up.

Geography in the National Curriculum

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
• are competent in the geographical skills needed to:  collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of   geographical processes
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.