At Birch Hill we believe that Geography education should inspire children’s curiosity about the world and its people. With this in mind, our aim is to not only deliver the National Curriculum but encourage children to develop interests about the continuously changing world and how and why things happen.   As children progress in knowledge and skills, we aim to deepen their understanding of the relationships between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Our aim is that this, in turn, will inspire our children to want to change the world for the better and understand ways in which they can positively contribute to improving sustainability of life on Earth.

National Curriculum Aims

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

Delivery

Our curriculum topics are designed to be coherent and sequences, building on children’s prior knowledge.  Through exciting and investigative lessons, we equip children with knowledge about diversity, places, people, resources and natural and human environments as well as encourage a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

Resouces

At Birch Hill, we very much value working and learning together. We place great importance on home learning as this can really enhance the children’s understanding of the world. Below is a list of high-quality, free websites which you can access through the internet at home with your child.

• National Geographic Kids contains lots of engaging geography resources for primary aged children and is curriculum aligned and the  You Tube channel has many different videos on relevant subject matters relating to geography
• The Royal Geographical Society have designed a unit of resources relating to the physical and human environments of the United Kingdom.
• The Mapzone tool supported by Ordnance Survey is a fantastic interactive way to introduce kids to map skills
• Kids World Travel Guide is a simple, informative website giving kid-friendly facts from around the world
• World Geography Games has quick and easy games for helping young students with countries, flags, capital cities and oceans
• The Tutorful website has compiled a list of useful educational geography resources
• The cross-curricular BBC Bitesize series of programmes has a regular series of geographic activities and learning materials as well as these specific sites for key stage 1 and key stage 2
• The BBC Teach site has some resources related to Go Jetters for Early Years Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1 children
• The EarthCam website has links to many different locations around the world including landmarks, volcanoes, towns and cities, 
• The Teach Primary website has some great ideas for how you can use Google Earth for key stage 1 and 2 children for activities at home
• Popular CBeebies show Go Jetters has a great minisite with games, songs and quizzes for young primary age children.  You can also view any of the episodes directly on BBCiPlayer
• The excellent Twinkl home education site has home education resources covering geographical topics for all stages, including some free downloads.  All downloads are available with a Twinkl membership, but you can also access a free trial
• Oxford Owl at home have written an article about the geography curriculum and how parents can support their child's learning at home.
• BBC Bitesize has a full set of videos and articles to support geography learning at home
• The excellent Our Planet site gives children an opportunity to explore the world with its interactive tool and spot landmarks and historical changes

Geography In Action:

At Birch Hill our children don’t just learn Geography, they experience it. From exploring the local area in Year 1 to extending their travels to places further afield in Year 6.