We want our children to leave Hillside Avenue with an understanding of People, Place and Society. The Geography curriculum - based on United Curriculum - will inspire our children to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world, learning respect for the environment and developing a social awareness of settlement and culture.

The United Curriculum for geography provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

• Relevant and coherent substantive knowledge of the world, which is built gradually using subject-specific pedagogy from EYFS to Year 6 and beyond.
• Substantive knowledge – both conceptual and procedural – is selected to build pupils’ understanding of three geographical vertical concepts:
  • Space and Place

Developing an understanding of space through ideas related to location, distribution, pattern and distance.

Developing a sense of place and character through ideas related to identity, home, community, landscapes and diversity, and examining a range of case studies from across the globe.

• Physical Processes

How the Earth’s natural processes shape and change the surface of the Earth. This includes both Geology & Earth Science aspects, such as the structure of the Earth and physical features we see on the land, as well as Environmental Science aspects, such as the weather and our changing climate. Both of these are threaded through the science curriculum too.

• Human Processes

The processes and phenomena that are caused by or relate to people, including our Use of Resources; the distribution and changes to the Population & Communities; and the features of the Economy & Development.

• A balanced view of the countries of the world, to address or even preempt misconceptions and negative stereotypes.
• Explicit teaching of core disciplinary knowledge, and the ability to approach challenging, geographically-valid questions. Geographical enquiry skills have been sequenced across the year groups and, where appropriate, review and build on relevant knowledge that is first taught in mathematics or science, such as interpreting line graphs or setting hypotheses.
• Opportunities to undertake fieldwork, outside the classroom and virtually. Fieldwork is purposeful, and either gives pupils the opportunity to put into practice relevant disciplinary knowledge or to reinforce their substantive knowledge.