Geography
At St. John’s, we aim to provide a high-quality geography education which develops in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. The more the children learn about our planet, the better prepared for the future they will be. Our purpose is to provide the knowledge, skills and understanding children need to make sense of their world and to thrive within it as well rounded citizens. We want to encourage our children to play an active part within our global community.
Geographical enquiry begins in the Early Years, as children begin to develop a sense of the world around them. Our children in Early Years make observations about their environment and explore similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
In Key Stage 1, children begin to learn about their locality and where they live. They begin to learn about the physical and human features of our town, Failsworth, and our location in relation to the rest of the United Kingdom. Children in Key Stage 1 have the opportunity to compare different locations around the world, such as hot and cold places and continents, carefully selected to meet the needs of the children we serve. Fieldwork forms an important part of our Geography curriculum at Key Stage 1, linked to our school, our immediate local area and our town, Failsworth.
As children move into Key Stage 2, they continue to develop their contextual local and world knowledge of locations, places and geographical features. Children are given regular opportunities to learn to question, enquire, conduct fieldwork, develop map skills and engage with real world issues. Fieldwork branches outside of our town at Key Stage 2, with children having the opportunity to visit our local city, Manchester, the rural landscape of Castleshaw and the Peak District.