Geography Rationale

At St Marys, our humanities curriculum aims to preserve the great accomplishments of the past, provide insight into and understanding of the world we live in, and to deliver the tools to imagine the future. It is through a humanities education that students are empowered to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of the world.

We aim to give our children a humanities curriculum which enables them to become confident, creative and independent learners who can explore the use of different knowledge and skills throughout their learning. We seek to broaden children’s real-life experiences both inside and outside of school through educational visits, visitors, experimentation, exploration and discovery.

Within lessons, our children acquire a range of knowledge and skills in both history and geography which they can then apply to other subjects and in a variety of situations. Furthermore, it is our aim that through historical and geographical learning, children will become accountable citizens, understanding their role in protecting our world and environment and knowing how they can cause positive change and development as they grow. 

How we teach Geography 

The humanities are planned as a central part of our connected curriculum. Each term is weighted more heavily in favour of geography or history, to ensure depth and coverage of both subjects across the year. Lessons centre around a ‘Big question’ that anchors the topic and provides weekly opportunities for reflection. Children experience a rich learning experience, using the skills to gain a deeper understanding of the subjects.

In geography, children are asked to consider cause and effect and to use geographical skills to collect and collate data. They study a wide range of places in the world and compare and contrast these with other places that they have studied.

How we assess the humanities

The humanities are assessed using teacher judgement against the specific skills and knowledge taught that term, in line with the overview created by the subject leader.  This assessment is divided into skills and knowledge. Children are also given the opportunity to evaluate their own learning, using sentence stems to support this.

Geography Progression Document