Geography Statement of Intent

Resilient        Respectful       Inspired      Curious

Geographers at Yeadon Westfield Junior School

Geography inspires in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. We teach Geography with the aim of equipping children with knowledge about people, resources, natural and human environments, in Yeadon and around the world. We also aim to inspire and inform children with knowledge about diverse places around our exciting world, in ways that is meaningful and relevant to them.

As children progress through YWJS, their growing knowledge will help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of different landscapes. Each year, children build on their developing geographical skills and show confidence and resilience in a range of skills such as map reading, comparing and contrasting a range of places in the world and securing place and locational knowledge as they go. Geography skills such as map reading, and orienteering are supported in PE lessons and on the school residential. Place and locational knowledge are supported during themed weeks such as Fairtrade Fortnight where children use maps to identify where key Fairtrade foods are grown.

By the end of Key Stage 2 at YWJS, our aim is that children will leave with the geographical knowledge, understanding and skills that allows them to explain how the Earth’s features, both in their local area and places further away from Yorkshire, are shaped, interconnected and changed over time. As their knowledge and respect of our world grows so will their ability to challenge, question and reflect on their own viewpoints. It is our wish for children to have a strong knowledge of place and location, as well as become globally aware of their impact on the planet, taking responsibility for their actions in an ever-changing world.

The children enjoyed exploring how mountains are made through a series of investigations. They explored erupting bags of icing for volcanic mountains, breaking chocolate crispie bars up to replicate fault block mountains, bending and folding card/paper to form fold mountains, plateau mountains created using water and sand to represent valleys created and dome mountains formed by blowing up a balloon.

"In our Yorkshire topic we have learnt about different settlements. I know that a hamlet is just a small group of houses, a village has houses and a small amount of shops, a town has churches, railway stations and lots more shops and a city has football stadiums, sky scrapers and shopping centers. I have enjoyed learning about Yorkshire!" Cruz 3B

"I enjoyed learning about geographical features in Yorkshire and the UK. It was fun sorting the different places in to human and natural features. A natural feature is Durdle Door, and a human feature is Edinburgh Castle." Evelyn 3L

"I enjoyed locating where rivers are by using an atlas and plotting them on my own map." Sophie 4K

"I learnt what erosion means and how the weather and climate change can change the course of a river." Amelia 4K

"I know what coasts are now and we spent a lesson locating beaches around the UK." Holly 4I

"In our Brazil topic, I have enjoyed comparing the human and physical features of Leeds with Rio de Janeiro. A human feature of Leeds is our school, and a human feature of Rio de Janeiro is Christ the Redeemer." Isla 5H

"I really enjoyed learning what a biome is. We spent a lesson comparing different biomes. I know that the Amazon Rainforest is a type of biome." Michael 5A

"I enjoyed researching natural features in Europe. I learnt that the tallest mountain in Europe is in Russia called Mount Elbrusi." Heidi 6M

"I learnt about human features in Europe. I researched the Eiffel Tower and found out that it has a secret scientific laboratory inside it!" Jacob 6G

Year 6 took part in a great practical lesson to secure our knowledge of the countries and capital cities in Europe. We played 'rounders' where we rotated round tables in our classroom to contribute to annotating blank maps of Europe. By the end we successfully located all the countries and capital cities in Europe as a whole class team!

Follow the link below to have a look at the wonderful 'Our Powerful Planet' Thing in the Hall project, focusing on geography.

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As part of our topic on Mighty Mountains, we used an Atlas to locate the major Mountain formations around the world and label these on our own paper copy of the world map.

As part of our topic on Ancient Egypt, we used an Atlas to locate the United Kingdom and Egypt. We then took a closer look at Egypt and drew our own maps with the River Nile, Upper and Lower Egypt and some of the key features of this country.

Year 3 - Volcanoes

Mount Vesuvius erupts!

Year 3 had a visit from Flavia, a time traveller from Pompeii who survived the eruption of Vesuvius. In our English, we then looked at the time line of when and how Vesuvius erupted and had a go at some still improvisation of our own reactions to each phase of the eruption. It was quite a day!

'You can travel the seas, poles and deserts and see nothing. To really understand the world you need to get under the skin of the people and places. In other words, learn about geography. I can't imagine a subject more relevant in schools. We'd all be lost without it'

Michael Palin