Geography Statement

Intent

At St Mary’s School, our intent is that the geography teaching offers our children the foundations for a greater understanding of the world that we live in. It allows individuals to consider their identity within the world and promotes the diversity around them. The geography curriculum develops knowledge that is transferable to other curriculum areas and which can, and is, used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The aim is for children to want to know more, remember more, understand more and to enquire more.

Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

We achieve this by ensuring that children are exposed to and provided with opportunities to explore, investigate and enquire about global issues. We help every child to develop as a whole person. Our intent is to inspire children to fulfil their potential and contribute towards a future within their community and the wider world. We provide geographical teaching which prepares young people for the social, economic and environmental surroundings of our modern world.

A key element to our teaching is the building of fundamental geographical knowledge and concepts that can be added to and developed each year, increasing memory recall and retrieval skills. This allows our children to advance their rational thinking skills in addition to developing a sense of curiosity and excitement about the planet that we live on.

Children at St Mary’s are constantly exposed and immersed in developing their vocabulary acquisition. This key geographical language increases student’s knowledge and understanding of not only the specific matter they are currently studying, but of the world they live in.

Geography within our school is about developing our student’s ideas, philosophy and geographical thinking by allowing them to investigate and study the environment and world around them, becoming experts of their own identity within our ever changing world.