Our curriculum has four core strands that it centres around that are built upon as the children move through the school. Locational knowledge is developed through focused learning about a country or continent throughout the whole geography topic each year. The children learn about the different human and physical features of their key location and build upon this through studying one country or place from that location. In doing so, the children have the opportunity to develop a rich place knowledge. As the children progress through the school, their locational and place knowledge is broadened as the curriculum zooms out from their local area (Kingston/London) and country (UK) in Year 3, to Europe in Year 4, going to different continents in Year 5 where they learn about South America followed by North America in Year 6.

Each year the children start with a study of their key location, learning about the areas, countries and cities that it is made up of, and developing their skills when using maps and atlases. The children learn about the key human and physical features that are within their key location, and build on prior knowledge from previous years. 

Across the year groups, the children are encouraged to gain a deeper understanding of an area within their key location, for example honing in on the Isles of Scilly in Year 3 or studying the European country of Spain in Year 4 . Through doing so, they are able to draw upon prior knowledge to develop an understanding of the geographical similarities and differences between their key location and where they live, or other locations they have studied previously. 

Each year, linked to their key location, is a study of that location’s physical features. Starting in Year 3, learning about the basic structure of our Earth and the formation of mountains and hills, and developing this knowledge in Year 4 considering the formation of Volcanoes and the features of rivers, as well as the water cycle. In Year 5, the children start to learn about human economic activities and how this links to the distribution of natural resources such as water that they considered in Year 4. When they move to Year 6, the children learn about what biomes are as well as what causes earthquakes and their impact on humans. 

Children have increasing opportunities to take part in fieldwork activities locally (Kingston and Richmond), as well as a range of outdoor learning activities that provide great opportunities for the development of key geographical skills, such as map reading and compass skills. 

By the end of Key Stage 2, we aim for children to have a great enthusiasm for Geography as well as excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like. We aim for all children to have a sense of curiosity to find out about their local area and the world around them.