Geography
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Our Vision
At Underwood West Academy, we firmly believe that a successful geography education should ignite a lasting curiosity and wonder about the world in our pupils. We see understanding the Earth as fundamental to grasping the concept of our shared home. When geography is taught effectively, it captivates and motivates children, fostering the curiosity they are born with.
At our school, we aim to demonstrate to our pupils that geography isn't just about distant lands—it's about them and their place in the world as they grow. Our curriculum is thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of our pupils, guiding them beyond their local surroundings to explore the broader national and global landscapes. Our goal is to instil a genuine enthusiasm and excitement for the subject of geography.
How we plan and teach Geography
Geography is taught as a discreet subject whilst making meaningful links to other curriculum areas where appropriate. Our curriculum ensures that pupils build on concepts over time thereby enhancing pupils’ locational knowledge year after year.
At the start of each year group pupils focus their learning on local geography, followed by national and then global geography in the final term of each year.
Geography fieldwork is regularly undertaken to provide first hand experiences. This enables pupils to interact with their surroundings, navigate real landscapes, manage risks, and collect data for authentic purposes.
Throughout our geography curriculum, we've identified key thematic threads such as "My Place in the World," "Sustainability," and "Connectivity." These threads are interwoven throughout units, revisited over time, and contribute to the coherence of our curriculum. Teachers also utilise resources from The Geography Association to enrich the overall teaching of geography.
Take a look below at our geography curriculum. Click on the year group tabs to view their termly knowledge organisers which support the pupils’ learning with each new unit we teach.
Take a look at what some of our fantastic pupils think about Geography at UWA:
Mollie Y6 - "I like learning about what's safe for the planet and what's not, like using renewable energy."
Skyla Y6 - "You get to learn about things about the world that you've never learned about before."
Ella Y4 - "Geography is so interesting. The knowledge organisers are very helpful and help me understand more about the lessons."
Oliwier Y4 - "I loved learning about lines of latitude and longitude because it was really interesting - I never knew they existed!"
Mario Y2 - "I love geography because we learn all about different countries, cities and oceans. I draw capital cities, my favourite are Paris, Berlin, Rome and London. Another favourite part is when we use the atlases, there are loads of interesting pages in it."
Kacper Y2 - "The knowledge organiser has all the information to help us answer the questions. A key on a map helps you find things. I love singing the continents song. Do you know what I love about geography? I love all the questions, how we try and answer them and the things we do. The Equator is an imaginary line."
Rhys Y3 - "I really enjoyed drawing a compass on the playground and looking at the different features we could see."
Tobias Y1 - "Geography is where you learn about the world. Dropping litter is not good for our environment. We have been learning all about the five oceans and seven continents."
Axel Reception - "You can use a map to sail off to sea, like a pirate. I want to learn about how water evaporates by the sun because I don't know how that happens. The Earth is green and blue, the blue is the water and the green is trees. In England, is where I step out of my house and my house is on West Street, on a little road. My country has the most colourful stuff."
