Geography and History

Your Geography and History Co-ordinator is Mr Atkinson.

 

Our curriculum is personalised to the children we teach. Overarching Topics can be linked to the book texts in English but also areas the children are interested in. These are not set in stone and form part of a learning dialogue between the teachers and their class. To ensure the National Curriculum is still covered, teachers use the skills grids below to plan purposeful lessons and provide rich, first-hand experiences that deepen their knowledge and understanding.

 

 

 

Our Visions for History and Geography

History and Geography Skills Year 1-6

Long Term Planning for Topics

Our Focus Days!

Geography

Geography is taught from Nursery to Year 6. In the Early Years, it is explored through 'Understanding of the World (UW)' and through a knowledge and skills based approach from years 1-6.

 

Geography in The Early Years

Understanding of the World teaches the children about other people, the place in which they live and about other aspects of the environment. We encourage our children to take note of what is in their immediate environment and to discuss similarities and differences between home and school. The journey to school, an awareness of different places and meeting new people from different places encourages our children to become respectful of our world and of its surrounding environment. Observations and conversations are noted and questions are explored and answered through teaching and child initiated learning activities.

 

Geography in the National Curriculum

At Flash Ley Primary School, exciting and creative Geography lessons are taught to inspire our children to learn about Geography and to foster an awareness of the world around them. Whilst engaging their minds in a love and thirst for knowledge of our ever changing, ever growing world. 

 

Key Stage 1

Our pupils will develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They will begin to understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

Our pupils will be taught to

• Name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans,
• Name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas
• Understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country Human and physical geography
• Identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
• Use basic geographical vocabulary, skills and fieldwork to refer to key physical and human features.
• Use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map Geography.
• Devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key  use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.

 

Key Stage 2

Our pupils will extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. Our pupils will develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.

 

Our pupils will be taught to:

• Locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
• Name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
• Identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night) Place knowledge
• Understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America Human and physical geography
• Describe and understand key aspects of physical and human
• Deepen geographical skills and fieldwork by using maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
• Use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
• Use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

 

 

Below are some useful Geography Websites for you to use with your child.

History

In EYFS History is taught under the heading of' Knowledge and Understanding of the World'.

 

The National Curriculum for History for Key Stage 1 & 2, aims to ensure that all pupils:

 

• Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: and how pupils lives have shaped the nation.

 

• The nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind

 

•  Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’



• Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses



• Understand the methods of historical enquiry,

 

•  Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts,

 

• Understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international

     history;

 

The following links are for websites linked to History:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/