HolyTrinityAcademy Curriculum – Geographical Skills and Knowledge
Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Year 4 / Year 5 / Year 6Communication:
Possible links to National Framework for Literacy units / Stories with familiar settings: Describe the local area in simple sentences and talk about it, sometimes using maps and plans.
Fantasy worlds: Use simple geographical vocabulary e.g. - hill, road, river, near, far, north and south to describe places
Information texts: Ask and answer questions about places. / Y2 theme: local geography: Calne, Avebury, The river Marden and Cherhill downs.
Draw labelled diagrams about my area, using geographical language
Explanation text: Describe how weather and/or people can change a landscape. Or how the Avebury stones could have been moved.
Story with a familiar setting: use knowledge of local geography.
Non-chronological report: The Green. / Y3 Theme: Rivers – The Nile, TheRoman empire.)
Reports: Use the right geographical words to describe places (Eg: temperature, climate, rainfall, transport, industry, natural resources.)
Information text:
Describe the course of a river using the correct vocabulary.
Draw maps, sketches and plans on a variety of scales: houses, settlements, rivers, countries, Roman empire. / Y4 Theme: Invasion, Migration and Settlement. Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the Middle Ages.
Persuasive texts: address a local issue e.g. traffic, landfill.
Explanation text: reasons for invasion, migration and settlement. E.g. population pressure, land fertility, climate, natural resources.
OR;
Human impact on geographical resources to damage: (e.g. overfishing, deforestation), conserve(e.g. crop rotation) or enhance (e.g. drainage). / Y5 Theme: The New World – voyages of discovery. Tudors, The Civil War.
Persuasive writing: Take and justify a point of view on an environmental issue e.g. colonialism.
Recount: Describe how human activity changes an environment. Understand that people have differing views about this. / Y6 Theme: World-wide empire, conflicts, trade and global issues: The Victorians, World wars and modern world, global environmental issues.
Persuasion: Explain my own views on environmental changes on a local and global level.
Argument: present a balanced argument about the effects of empire, the causes of war or global warming.
Journalistic writing: A model global issue e.g. Fairtrade.
Geographical enquiry /
Fieldwork / Observe and draw simple features in the environment.
Add colour and textures to prepared sketches.
Recognise a photo or video as a record of what has been seen.
Use everyday language to describe features: bigger, smaller than, near and far.
Count the number of cars, houses or other things in the streets close to the school
Collect house numbers, put them in order and spot patterns.
Relate street names to the history of the area. / Conduct a simple survey e.g. number of stories of houses on the Green or ways people travel to school.
Use tally charts and tables to record information about the types of buildings in the local area.
Use a pro-forma and put ticks in boxes when collecting geographical data.
Draw outlines of observations. Add colour, texture and detail to field sketches.
Join labels to correct features.
Use a camera to record what they have seen and label the photo.
Read a thermometer
Describe how the local area is linked to other places in the world (e.g. food from other countries on sale in the supermarket, stone circles in other places) / Prepare questionnaires to investigate people’s views about an environmental issue e.g. Pollution in the river Marden,
Use standard units of measurement and tools such as a trundle wheel.
Add descriptive and explanatory labels to field sketches and diagrams e.g. stages of a river, water cycle.
Use a rain gauge to measure local rainfall.
Record findings in a simple database, charts, graphs and tables.
use datalogging equipment to measure wind speed, rainfall and noise levels around the school.
DT link: Use Westpoint bridge designer software. / Collect statistics about people and places and present them in tables, charts, graphs and pie charts
Make careful measurements of rainfall, noise levels and distances, calculate as necessary and present data in charts and graphs.
Link place names to their geographic features & history. E.g.–ford, -ham, -chester, -combe.
Pick out the key lines and features of a view in the field, using a viewfinder to help.
Trace family history and the roots of surnames, especially to occupations and places. Start in the class and use parents / grandparents surnames to illustrate mixed origins of UK population. Gather data on typical Norse / Celtic / Saxon features e.g. hair and eye colour. / Work out journey times around the world using knowledge of time zones. (use modern day flight departure and arrival times)
Know how and why day length, climate and seasons vary around the world. –(Link to Science topic Earth in Space)
Make careful measurements during fieldwork activities and represent my findings mathematically. E.g. measure distances on Roundway Down battlefield.
Sketch and photograph geographical features from several angles to give fuller information. Annotate and explain sketches and photos. E.g. ‘aerial photo showing street plan of Mayan city’ , ‘view from North showing Royalist position on Roundway Down’. / Ask questions that are responsive to an interviewee’s views. E.g. sides in an environmental debate.
Use Victorian census data. Design own census, pilot it and evaluate.
Use field sketches to explain geographical processes and patterns e.g. coastal erosion – residential trip to Lynton. Landing sites for invasion.
Analyse data sets over time to answer questions e.g. is the weather becoming more variable, are flowers blooming earlier?
Collect own data to answer an environmental question. Evaluate the quality and usefulness of the data they have collected.
Mapwork skills
Key Knowledge / Follow directions (up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards).
Give directions to a floor robot.
Draw picture of imaginary places and places in stories.
Use my own symbols on a map.
Use a simple map to move around a place (eg the school)
Draw around objects to make a plan.
Identify daily changes in the weather. Name the 4 seasons. Describe the weather in each.
Locate hot and cold areas of the world: use globes and satellite images to identify the poles, deserts, rainforests. / Follow and give directions using NSEW.
Add detail to a sketch map from an aerial photograph.
Compare maps and aerial photographs over time to identify changes e.g. Calne, Avebury.
Begin to understand the need for a key – (children decide own key symbols.)
Use Landranger OS maps to locate local places – Calne, Avebury. Use map to locate Avebury stone circle in relation to surrounding monuments.
Look down on objects (eg Models of houses on The Green) to make a plan view.
Identify on a map : Calne, Avebury, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
On a globe, locate continents, oceans and holiday destinations. / Learn the names and locations of major British rivers: Thames, Severn, Trent, Mersey, Tweed.
And of major rivers within the old Roman empire: Nile, Rhine ,Rhone, Loire, Danube, Tigris.
And of seas surrounding the empire: Mediterranean, Black Sea, North Sea, British Channel, Irish Sea, Atlantic ocean.
Represent a 3d shape as a 2d image on a map and interpret 2d images on maps. E.g. river, pyramid, contour lines.
Read symbols on an Ordnance Survey map – main symbols and some specialised examples e.g. roman villa.
Use single letter / number coordinates to locate features on a map.
Know the stages in the development of a river. The water cycle (science link). / Follow a route on a map with some accuracy – while orienteering (PE link)
Begin to use 8 compass points.
Draw simple maps to represent sites visited, using different scales e.g.castles: close-up to show defensive features, large scale to show topographical positioning.
Use letters & numbers to locate points on a map confidently.
Know the names of European countries from which invaders came.
Use local OS map to locate historical site and research place names.
Changes in land use since the time of the Anglo-Saxons: deforestation, draining of marshes, common land, strip farming. The Domesday Book. / Work out what scales of maps mean.
Position and significance of the equator, Northern & Southern hemisphere, tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, longitude, latitude and the prime (Greenwich) meridian. Arctic & Antarctic circles.
Use 4-figure coordinates to locate features on maps.
Work with 8 compass points.
Know the names of the world’s oceans and continents. Identify these on a map.
Name and locate on a map some major rivers of the world: Mississippi, Colorado, Amazon, Yangtze, Indus, Ganges.
Physical and human characteristics of North and South America. Change over the last 500 years.
Biomes around the world – desert, forests, grassland, tundra, lakes, wetlands, oceans, reefs. / Work confidently with scales on maps.
Use six- figure grid references to identify and match coastal/ river features shown on maps and photographs e.g. Lynton & North Devon Coast.
Follow a route using an OS map and compass.
Understand and construct maps which show data e.g. population density, life expectancy, income. Link these to climate and economics.
Global trade: imports & exports of major countries. E.g. worldmapper website.
The earth’s crust: location of major plates and volcanoes.
Countries of Europe: before and after WW2.
Questioning, Thinking and Problem Solving / How would I change the classroom or a room at home? What problems could I solve? E.g. lack of space.
How and why does the weather change? -Day to day and around the world? / How might people have moved the Avebury stones? Collaborate to test theories.
How could the local area be improved?
Contrast – Calne with a non-European town of similar size: What’s the same and what’s different? (human and physical features) / Why did the Romans build straight roads?
Why was the city of Bath founded?
Why did the Nile civilisation succeed? / Describe some geographical patterns resulting from invasion and settlement (e.g. language & cultural differences in Britain (Celtic, Viking, Saxon) , positioning of castles)
What is the best way to attack a castle?
Explain some weather patterns e.g. why temperature varies around the world, frost remains in some areas, or rainfall is higher in some places. / What were the effects of worldwide exploration? – positive and negative (lead into next year’s study of globalisation).
Examine and question the motives and moral framework of early explorers. / Explain what global warming is and debate possible causes and solutions.
Examine current trends and possible futures e.g. Can different cultures be preserved? Is this desirable?