Our Curriculum:

At Bedford Primary School, we recognise that the curriculum we deliver is the toolkit we send our children out into the world with. It reflects our context, core values and the kind of citizens we want to send out into the world. We have to be ambitious for them and prepare them for a rapidly changing digital world.

'Geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides

and bring people together.'  Barack Obama 

Skills of a great geography student: 

•  A curiosity and fascination for the world around them
•  Have a deep understanding of the world’s physical features and processes
• Have knowledge of the planet’s significant places and be able to make comparisons between them.
• Be able to collect and interpret a range of data from the world around them
• Be able to make connections between the physical and human features of our planet to other areas of the curriculum.

Our vision for geography:

At Bedford Primary we are passionate about educating our children to be citizens of the globe. Through our engaging and challenging geography curriculum, our children are given the opportunity to explore our ever changing planet and to develop the skills to understand its physical and human features.

About geography at Bedford:

Throughout their primary journey, our pupils are taught the four skills strands:

Location Knowledge -  in which pupils are given the opportunity to explore and locate the countries of the United Kingdom and the wider world. They also explore the seven continents and several regions of the world, looking carefully at human and physical characteristics and topographical features (including mountains, hills, coasts and rivers).

Place Knowledge – in which children are encouraged to identify and explore the similarities and differences between a region of the United Kingdom and another country in the world.

Human and Physical Geography – in which our pupils are taught to describe and understand  key aspects of  weather, climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes and the water cycle. They are also taught to explore and understand some key aspects of human geography such as settlements, economic activity and trade links, and natural resources.

Geographical skills and Fieldwork – in which children are taught the important skills of using maps, atlases, and digital computer mapping to describe the features of regions and places they have studied. Our pupils are also taught to use compass points, grid references and map keys. At Bedford we aim to teach these skills with hands on experiences in our locality.

Substantive Concepts in Geography 

Pupils undertake two geography units of study per year. Our unique Geography curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure that four substantive concepts are taught and revisited every year, allowing pupils to make links across the curriculum making connections to previous learning and building foundations for future units of study. These substantive concepts are: 

Water 

Weather & Climate 

Settlement and Land Use

Economic Activity 

Each unit of study is carefully planned to ensure these concepts are included and prior knowledge and key vocabulary are considered

Use of Google Classroom and Google Earth

At Bedford Primary, we endevour to use technology whenever we can to strengthen children’s understanding and knowledge. Our pupils are given the opportunity to use Google Earth to further develop their understanding of maps and aerial photographs. This is an important part of our Geography curriculum but is also utilised in other areas of the curriculum to help children make connections across their learning.

Helping your child with geography at home:

A curiosity for the world is the most important thing to encourage in a young geographer. This should start on your doorstep! Walk around your locality and discuss the human and physical features of your local area. You may even want to use Google ,Maps or Earth to encourage your child to spot significant landmarks and places.

Explore the wider world from your computer! Google Earth is an wonderful resources to explore the planet’s physical and human features!

Useful links: