Geography

Geography vision statement

“Without geography, you’re nowhere” - Jimmy Buffet

Definition of the subject

Geography is the study of places on Earth and the relationships between people and their environments. It is divided into two branches - human geography and physical geography. A person who studies Geography is called a geographer.

Physical geographers observe, measure, and describe Earth’s surface and study things such as oceans and rivers, deserts and forests, countries, continents and climate.

Human geography focuses on where people live, what they do there, and how they use the land. Human geographers might study why cities and towns develop in certain places.

Pupil definition

Geography is the study of places on Earth and the relationships between people and their environments.

Subject Aims

At HBJS we recognise the importance of Geography in every aspect of daily life. We aim to empower children to make sense of the world around them and discover the unique relationship all living things have with the planet we live on. Teachers will deliver the knowledge and skills necessary for the children to understand their position in the world and also how this is similar and different to the experiences of others around the globe.

Children will be equipped with excitement and knowledge to enable them to understand how both the human and physical geography play a key role in how the world works. In geography lessons, children will learn how to use maps to make sense of the world by looking at scale, topography and symbols.

Children will conduct fieldwork on the school grounds and within the local area to find answers to enquiry questions about our unique location. Children will learn about the landforms that mark our planet such as rivers, mountains and volcanoes. Children will also learn about people and their relationship to our global environment, covering topics such as tourism, trade, climate change and settlements.

Subject dream

Our dream at Hunter’s Bar is to make the world seem a smaller place. We would like our children to be excited about and want to learn about both their local and global environment. This can be done in many ways, including comparing locations, investigating areas and land use, writing and talking about places, asking and answering questions.

In geography lessons, we want children to be curious about the planet they call home and learn knowledge that will make sense of the world around them. Our dream is for children to stand at the top of a hill and use their geography knowledge and skills to talk confidently about what they see before them and to have a sense of awe and wonder about the geographical world.

5 - point fingerprint

Geography is the study of places on Earth and the relationship between people and their environments.
To ask questions about people and places and give ideas of how they could find answers to these questions.
To know and understand the physical processes that create landforms in our world such as mountains, rivers and volcanoes.
Be able to use maps, globes, diagrams, a compass, grid references, symbols, aerial photographs and other geographical information to build knowledge and understanding of the human and physical geography of a location.
Comment on the types and impact of human geography e.g. settlements, land use, economic activity, distribution of natural resources.

Big substantive ideas of Geography

Climate

Location

Resources

Tourism

Landforms

Trade

Land use

Big 2nd order ideas of Geography

Scale	Space	Place	Connection	Being a geographer
The ‘zoom’ from personal, local, regional to global.	The physical features, people and goods that take up space in a location and the movement of them around the world e.g. trade, migration, industry.	The human and physical geographical features of a place.	The similarities and differences of people’s relationship to their environment. This can be looked at on a local, regional or global scale.	How to collect, record and present geographical information. This includes fieldwork using geographical tools such as maps, globes and compasses. We will learn to use our ‘geographical imagination’ so that we can use what we know to imagine what somewhere is like (without even visiting).