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Geography

Geography at Sandown Primary School

At Sandown Primary School, our Geography curriculum is carefully sequenced to build children’s knowledge, skills and understanding progressively from Reception to Year 6.

Please click here for our Geography Overview.

In Key Stage 1, children begin with essential skills projects that introduce important geographical concepts and vocabulary. They then explore topics such as urban environments and the UK in Bright Lights, Big City (Year 1) and coastal geography in Coastline (Year 2), including opportunities for practical fieldwork.

In Lower Key Stage 2, pupils deepen their understanding through projects such as Rocks, Relics and Rumbles (earthquakes and volcanoes) in Year 3 and the study of mountains and rivers in Year 4. These projects develop knowledge of physical geography and fieldwork skills.


In Upper Key Stage 2, children further refine their geographical thinking and enquiry skills. Year 5 explores farming and rural land use in Sow, Grow and Farm, while Year 6 studies the polar regions and environmental issues in Frozen Kingdoms, encouraging pupils to consider global challenges and sustainability.

Geography at Sandown is enriched through a range of meaningful, hands-on experiences. Pupils conduct fieldwork on school grounds and in the local area, applying their learning in real-world settings. Educational visits further enhance understanding, and visitors such as geologists help bring learning to life. Throughout the school, our curriculum ensures full coverage of the National Curriculum and makes meaningful links with other subjects, helping children understand how geography connects to the wider world.

Geographical skills and fieldwork

This includes learning how to interpret a range of sources of information such as maps, atlases, globes and photographs to describe and locate features and areas studied. Where possible, the children are given opportunities to use the skills they learn in the classroom and transfer them to real field work in our extensive school grounds and surrounding areas.

Location and place knowledge

Children learn to locate globally significant places such as continents, countries and oceans and understand geographical similarities and differences through contrasting case studies such as a location in the UK compared to another in North America.

Human and physical geography

In order to draw comparisons between areas, children research human features of locations such as settlements, land use, trade and resources as well as looking at physical features such as mountains, rivers, volcanoes and climate zones.

For additional information about this subject, please contact the school office and ask to speak to the subject leader.