Geography at Norfolk Community Primary School

Our Vision for Geography

At Norfolk Community Primary School, we believe that geography should inspire a lifelong curiosity and fascination about Britain and the wider world. Our curriculum is ambitious, well-planned, and designed to give all learners the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life.

Geography plays a vital role in helping our children understand their identity within our local community, equipping them with the self-confidence to celebrate global diversity. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced, starting with the child's immediate surroundings. We use hands-on fieldwork to explore the rich human and physical geography of our school and the city of Sheffield, before broadening our scope to the wider UK, Europe, and the rest of the world.

What Geography Looks Like at Our School

Lessons are taught through engaging topics that prioritize a physical earth process in one half term and focus on human geography in another. This allows children to make meaningful links across subjects, maintaining high levels of motivation and interest.

Through our curriculum, Norfolk Geographers learn to:

• Recognise Interdependence: Understand how different countries and areas of the world rely on each other for social, economic, cultural, and ecological needs.
• Appreciate Place, Space, and Scale: Know that every location has a unique set of physical and human characteristics, and understand how problems can be looked at from a personal, local, national, or global scale.
• Understand Processes and Change: Discover how the world’s environments, landscapes, and societies continuously change due to physical forces (like climate and natural disasters) and human forces (like land use and economic activity).
• Evaluate Human Impact: Examine how humans rely on natural resources, how obtaining them alters the planet, and how rapid population growth increases environmental hazards.
• Celebrate Diverse Communities: Appreciate the similarities and differences between people and cultures, while learning how diversity builds a highly functioning society.

Our Geographical Journey

Key Stage 1: Map Skills and Local Awareness

In Key Stage 1, geography builds a basic vocabulary of human and physical features. Pupils learn simple compass directions, utilize aerial photos, and map out routes around the school grounds. They explore hot and cold regions of the world relative to the equator, study weather patterns, and investigate British seaside resorts like Cleethorpes.

Key Stage 2: Dynamic Spatial Patterns

In Key Stage 2, pupils extend their knowledge beyond the local area to Europe and the Americas. They develop advanced disciplinary skills—learning how to ask deep geographical questions, collect fieldwork data, analyze Ordnance Survey maps, and interpret six-figure grid references and contour lines. They study complex environmental regions, river systems, the water cycle, and global climate patterns.

Geography in the Early Years (EYFS)

In Foundation Stage, our youngest geographers begin by exploring their immediate surroundings. Through outdoor learning and storytelling, children learn to:

• Map Their World: Explore the school, draw simple picture maps, and look at aerial views to find familiar buildings and open spaces.
• Compare Environments: Observe natural and built features outside and in Norfolk Park, noting differences between our local area and contrasting environments across the nation and world.
• Observe Shifting Seasons: Keep a daily record of the weather to understand the direct link between time, place, and changing seasonal environments.
• Practice Sustainability: Build a foundational understanding of environmental responsibility by learning how to care for their local school environment.

Our Goal: Every child leaves Norfolk Primary with a rich geographical vocabulary, strong map-reading skills, and a deep respect for our dynamic planet and its diverse people.

National Curriculum

At Norfolk, the geography curriculum is carefully mapped out across school ensuring that all areas of the national curriculum are thoroughly covered. Click below to see the National Curriculum guidelines. 

Enquiry questions

Our History curriculum is underpinned by enquiry questions: deep questions that the children will develop their understanding of throughout the unit of work. These questions are regularly revisited so that the children can develop their responses and understanding. Click below to find out all of our exciting questions!