Geography Intent

At Whitechapel Primary School, our geography curriculum aims to inspire a lifelong curiosity about the world and a deep understanding of the relationships between people, places, and environments. Our intent is to build pupils’ geographical knowledge, spatial awareness and cultural understanding progressively, enabling them to make sense of physical and human processes, patterns, and how places change over time.

In Key Stage 1, our bespoke curriculum introduces pupils to geography through meaningful, local and personal contexts. Children begin by exploring their immediate environment—school, home, and local area—before extending to the UK and the wider world. This foundation develops secure locational knowledge, early map skills, and an increasingly rich vocabulary to describe places, features, and geographical processes.

In Key Stage 2, we implement the Opening Worlds programme, which provides a rich, rigorous, and knowledge-led framework. Through well-sequenced units, pupils gain a deep understanding of global regions, physical landscapes, ecosystems, and human geography. The programme explicitly teaches the language and concepts that enable all children, including those with SEND, to access complex ideas and engage confidently with the discipline of geography. It ensures that pupils build coherent mental maps of the world and make meaningful connections between places, themes, and processes.

By the end of primary school, pupils will:

• Know and understand key geographical concepts, features, processes, and the diversity of environments around the world.

• Develop accurate locational knowledge of the UK, Europe, and wider global regions.

• Use maps, atlases, photographs, and other geographical tools to observe, describe, and explain patterns and processes.

• Develop disciplinary thinking skills, such as asking geographical questions, interpreting data, and evaluating how human and physical factors interact.

• See themselves as geographers—curious, analytical, and globally aware learners.

Geography Implementation

Key Stage 1 – Bespoke Curriculum

In Key Stage 1, geography is taught through carefully selected topics that connect to children’s lived experiences and local surroundings, helping them make sense of the world they encounter every day. Learning is sequenced to build secure geographical foundations, beginning with familiar places before expanding to contrasting environments in the UK and beyond.

Teaching emphasises first-hand experiences such as local walks, fieldwork, simple data collection, and observational drawings. Children learn to use maps and globes, identify physical and human features, and describe places using increasingly precise vocabulary. Storybooks, photographs, digital maps and models are used to bring distant places to life while strengthening pupils’ spatial awareness and understanding of place.

Key Stage 2 – Opening Worlds Programme

In Key Stage 2, the Geography curriculum follows a coherently sequenced, knowledge-rich programme developed by Christine Counsell and colleagues. Each unit carefully builds substantive geographical knowledge (about places, environments, and processes) alongside disciplinary knowledge, which focuses on how geographers study and interpret the world.

Structured vocabulary instruction is embedded throughout to ensure equitable access for all learners, supporting every pupil to understand and use technical geographical language. Key concepts—such as scale, interdependence, climate, sustainability, and physical processes—are revisited and strengthened across units. High-quality maps, visual sources, narratives, and data sets are integral to teaching, enabling pupils to interpret geographical information with confidence. Assessment focuses on pupils’ ability to apply geographical knowledge, use fieldwork and mapping skills, and explain processes using precise vocabulary.

Geography Impact

Through our Geography curriculum, pupils at Whitechapel Primary School develop:

• A strong, connected body of geographical knowledge across different places, scales, and environments.

• A secure sense of locational awareness and an understanding of how physical and human processes shape the world.

• The ability to think critically about geographical issues, drawing on evidence, data, and reasoning to reach thoughtful conclusions.

• Confidence in using subject-specific vocabulary to discuss, write about, and investigate geographical ideas.

• A deep appreciation of global diversity, environmental responsibility, and the interconnectedness of communities.

By the end of Key Stage 2, our pupils leave as curious, informed, and articulate young geographers, ready to build on their knowledge at secondary school and engage thoughtfully with the world they inhabit.