Belleville Wix Academy

Geography

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Earth is changing rapidly, faster than at any other time in recorded history, and people are more ‘connected’ than ever. Through engagement with global issues such as pollution, climate change and pandemics, children can make choices that can improve the world. 

Geography is about developing children’s knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the world's diverse people, places and environments. Our curriculum helps them understand how places are constantly changing, why they are important and how they are connected. We want children who will ask questions and be critical and creative thinkers who feel empowered to take care of our amazing planet.

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Our curriculum progressively builds vocabulary and concepts over time, and we use first-hand experiences and technology as much as possible, to make learning engaging and relevant.  Themes and content are ambitious and have been developed with subject specialists, the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society to go beyond the National Curriculum.

Geography fieldwork and mapping starts from Early Years and moves from understanding of the very local to integral visits to different localities in person and also through virtual exploration in Key Stage 2.

We use enquiry approaches, research, discussion and presentation to get children working together to discuss and debate answers to many geographical big questions such as:

  • What is climate?
  • Will we always have extreme weather? 
  • Will our food ever run out? 
  • Can trade ever be fair? 

 

In our bilingual stream, we work with École de Wix to ensure that by the end of each Key Stage, pupils will have covered all English and French National Curriculum expectations. When learning in English, pupils cover predominantly the same units of Geography as their mainstream peers.  However, in our younger classes (Reception Bilingual and Year 1 Bilingual), we plan shared topics in conjunction with École de Wix, with a strong focus on bilingual early language acquisition. In addition, Year 4 Bilingual pupils also focus on comparing and contrasting various human geography features in France and the UK, to maximise their bi-cultural learning opportunities. 

 

Download our Q1E Geography Curriculum Overview 

Download our Q1E Geography Progression Document

 

The following link will take you to the government’s national curriculum for primary schools:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum