Find out more about our primary geography curriculum and read our FAQs
Introduction
We’ve been working closely with curriculum partners, subject experts and teachers and have now released our new interactive primary geography curriculum plan.
Our curriculum partner for geography is:
- Geography primary: Geographical Association
You can read more about how our expert groups helped shape our curriculum thinking in our Blog: Collaborating with our geography expert group.
Find out more about how to use our interactive curriculum plans and adapt them for your school in our Guide to our new curricula.
When will all the resources be available?
We have started to release our new lesson planning and resources on a rolling basis across this year.
Our new units and lessons all have a ‘New’ label beside them.
You’ll be able to see what lessons we will be covering in each unit by clicking into the unit information on the unit sequence page.
We’ll be releasing the rest of the lesson planning and teaching resources for these primary geography units on a rolling basis across the year.
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By autumn 2024, you’ll have access to everything we’re releasing for primary geography.
What's happening with our existing primary geography resources?
All of our existing primary geography resources, that were released before September 2022, will remain available for the whole of 2023/24. Please do keep using them alongside our new teaching resources that are rolled out this year.
Once we've released all the teaching resources for our new curriculum, by autumn 2024, we will then retire the previous primary geography resources.
FAQs
How will pupils build locational knowledge at KS1 and KS2?
Pupils will build locational knowledge at local, regional, national and global scales throughout the primary curriculum.
At KS1 pupils will build locational knowledge of the seven continents and five oceans, the countries and capital cities of the UK and its surrounding seas, along with a range of knowledge of their local area. Importantly, pupils will develop an understanding of distance, proximity and scale associated with this locational knowledge.
At KS2 pupils will further their locational knowledge through regional studies based in Europe and the Americas and develop deeper locational knowledge of the human and physical features of the UK.
What is the approach to building pupils' place knowledge?
Place knowledge is integrated throughout the curriculum, however, through incorporating regional studies, the curriculum avoids stereotyping places and avoids 'single story' narratives.
Key regional studies include the Lake District in the UK, Lombardy in Northern Italy, Kingston in Jamaica, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and the Amazon region of South America.
How are pupils encouraged to link geographical learning from different units?
The curriculum is carefully planned for the progression of pupils' knowledge of geographical processes and concepts. The curriculum is therefore sequenced so that pupils can make sense of new units by using existing knowledge from prior learning.
For example, by the time pupils are studying the Lake District in year 4, lessons can draw on pupils' knowledge of weather, rivers and mountains to make sense of the region.
How are fieldwork skills developed?
Fieldwork is integrated into the curriculum from the very first unit and pupils will have the opportunity to investigate their geographical surroundings throughout the course in a variety of contexts. Pupils will develop knowledge of the fieldwork enquiry process and a range of transferable fieldwork techniques.
How will maps be used in the curriculum?
Maps are used in all units to build locational knowledge, develop a conceptual understanding of space, scale and proximity, and teach specific mapwork skills.
How can I use your resources to support in planning local geography?
Teachers can use our local area lessons as a framework to develop pupils’ knowledge of the landmarks, buildings and physical features of their unique local area. Fieldwork lessons can be adapted so that teachers can contextualise investigations so that they focus on their local area or school site.
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