“Geography is the tapestry that weaves the world together.”
– Gil Grosvenor
Vision Statement
Geography is an integral part of the curriculum at Newham Bridge Primary School and we aim to motivate and inspire children through an enquiry-based approach so that they develop a love of learning in Geography. We seek to empower students to be become active, independent learners. We understand the importance of a geographical education in inspiring pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Through our curriculum, we equip children to be Global Citizens: to develop an awareness of the wider world and their place within it, encourage them to take an active role in the community and work with others to make our planet more sustainable and fairer.
Intent
🌍 Locational and Place Knowledge
- Contextual Awareness: Develop an interest in and knowledge of their home, its neighbourhood, their country, and the wider world.
- Environmental Appreciation: Begin to appreciate their surroundings and foster a deep sense of responsibility for the environment.
🔍 Geographical Skills and Enquiry
- Investigative Methods: Develop a range of skills necessary for geographical enquiry and the accurate interpretation of geographical information.
- Data Communication: Communicate geographical information effectively, through the use of maps, technology, and writing.
- Critical Evaluation: Critically assess evidence and ideas, giving reasoned arguments for their opinions.
⚡ Human and Physical Geography
- Earth Systems: Begin to understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world.
- Global Citizenship: Understand sustainable development and interdependence, while beginning to explore global issues facing society.
Curriculum and fieldwork
To fulfil our vision of active, independent learning, fieldwork is interwoven throughout our geography units. We utilise a progressive framework of fieldwork locations to scale learning from the immediate environment to the wider region:
- School Grounds: Used for foundational observation, localized weather tracking, and early map-making.
- Local Area (Acklam): Pupils investigate types of settlement, land use, and local community infrastructure.
- Saltburn: Provides direct engagement with physical coastal geography, erosion, marine environments, and tourism impacts.
- Tees Barrage: Used to study river management, engineering, and human alteration of natural physical features.
- Danby: Offers rural fieldwork contrast within the North York Moors to study conservation, eco-systems, and national parks.
- York: Provides an extended regional contrast to investigate historic urban growth, tourism, and complex human geography.
Digital Technology
Technology is used seamlessly alongside traditional map skills to enhance geographical enquiry, data handling, and communication. We actively utilise three primary digital platforms across the key stages.
- Digimap for Schools: Used by pupils to access up-to-date Ordnance Survey maps, compare historical map overlays, measure distances, and plot specific fieldwork data from Acklam to York.
- National Geographic Mapmaker: Employed to explore global themes, interactive environmental layers, physical landforms, and human geography trends on a worldwide scale.
- Anton: Utilised as an interactive learning platform to reinforce core geographical vocabulary, locational knowledge, and basic map-reading skills through targeted exercises.
Assessment and Progression
Pupil progression is tracked systematically to ensure high standards of geographical learning and achievement:
- Enquiry Framing: Progression is structured around central enquiry questions for each topic, encouraging pupils to work like geographers.
- Pre and Post Assessments: Used for every topic throughout the school to baseline prior knowledge, measure data retention, and track explicit progress.
Monitoring and Quality Assurance
Our geography curriculum is continuously evaluated to maintain high pedagogical quality and impact:
- Subject Leadership: Regular curriculum reviews, frequent book looks, and structured learning walks are conducted by the subject leader.
- External Verification: Our geography provision, curriculum intent, and leadership are independently verified by the Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM) from the Geographical Association.
