Geography

Our Philosophy:

At Brighton Avenue Primary, we hope that geography shall stimulate an interest in and a sense of wonder about places and give children the lasting awareness of the local area, the wider world and its people. We will provide opportunities for our children to carry out investigations into local, national or global locations so they are able to gain a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. Through geographical enquiry which encourages questioning, investigation and critical thinking, our children will learn about resources and natural and human environments. By the end of their learning journeys, we hope that geography will have inspired our children to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world, their values and their responsibilities to other people, to the environment and to the sustainability of the planet.

Our Aims:

The principles of teaching Geography at Brighton Avenue Primary School are consistent with our school philosophy and take into account the National Curriculum Guidance for Geography.  (See Geography Policy for further information.

Principles of Teaching Geography:

• Stimulate pupils’ interest in their surroundings and in the variety of human and physical conditions on the earth’s surface;
• Foster pupils’ sense of wonder at the beauty of the world surrounding them;
• Help pupils develop an informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat;
• Enhance pupils’ sense of responsibility for the care of the earth and its people and secure their commitment to promoting and living sustainable lifestyles;
• Develop pupils’ disciplinary knowledge of critical enquiry and an ability to handle and interpret information, through asking and answering geographical questions and using computing to communicate with and explore a variety of people, places and environments across the world;
• Hhelp pupils explore values and attitudes about complex issues such as sustainability and sustainable development;
• Enable pupils to study the above across a range of places, cultures and environments at a variety of scales, from local to global;
• Foster a sense of understanding about how we are interconnected interdependent with other people and ecosystems around the world.
• To enable the pedagogy which underpins learning, we will ensure all lessons are enquiry led and start with a key question, which encourages our pupils to take increasing responsibility for their learning, think independently and achieve challenging subject outcomes.
• To encourage our children to develop their substantive, procedural and disciplinary knowledge of geography through big question led enquiries about topics, places and themes which focus on real people, places and geographical issues and allows them sufficient scope and time to really engage in high order subject skills such as developing explanations (even though there are very often no ‘right’ answers to questions in geography), reaching conclusions, making judgements, evaluating, applying information learned in one context to another and generating their own ideas and questions to investigate through hypothesising. 
• To use the 'Power of 3' ascertain prior knowledge.
• To ensure Teachers and children have high expectations in their achievement so children know what they need to do next to progress.
• To ensure children can use geographical vocabulary correctly and in the right context.
• To ensure educational visits and visitors into school are built into our curriculum plans so our children gain real life/hands on experiences, which compliment our cultural capital provision.
• To ensure our curriculum links with others areas of the curriculum as much as possible.
• To ensure Teachers have access to quality CPD and good practise is shared within and outside of school.
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Spring in Early Years 

The children in Early Years have been exploring grid maps. As part of their small group focus, the children were provided with opportunities to use BeeBots. They worked so well exploring how to use them on the grid maps. The children have also been on a trip to a local park. The children visited Saltwell Park and they really enjoyed their local area. 

Spring in KS1 

Year 2 had the opportunity to go on an exciting trip in Spring 2. In Geography, the learning question has been: 'Why does it matter where my food comes from?'. The children had a visit to Peepy Farm and Bywell Estate. When they arrived at Peepy Farm, they explored the farm. They found out some interesting facts about dairy farms and how the cows are milked each day. Next, came an opportunity to make butter and explore the milking parlour. The children found it fascinating that the cows get to listen to the radio when they are milked. It was a great trip! 

Spring in KS2

In UKS2 this term, the children have been identifying how physical features of rivers change from source to mouth. As part of their river topic, the children explored the features of river estuaries to gain an understanding of why they are such important ecosystems for wildlife. The children enjoyed creating different posters to share the names of some of the most important wading birds to be found. In addition to this, they explored why going at different times such as; high tide, low tide, falling tide and rising tide would change the number of birds spotted.

Autumn in Early Years

This week, the children in Reception did so well on their walk to the local Post Office. They talked about what they could see in our area on our walk. When the children reached the Post Office, they bought stamps, stuck them on to envelopes which had our special invitations inside and then finally put them in the post box. The children have also been enjoying using a map of the classroom and mini me people to plan with. 

Autumn in KS1

Year 1 have been learning about what it's like where they live. They explored a map of the UK and were able to find where Gateshead was. They are looking forward to going on a walk around the local area to see what human and physical features they can find.

The children in Year2 listened to the story 'Where is Home, Little Pip?' and then they looked at where Pip's home is and what we find there. Year 2 have been exploring the globe. Their topic this half term has allowed the children to learn about the location of the Arctic and Antarctica and compare the two. The children enjoyed exploring the atlases and they were able to identify the different continents. The children used globes and maps to locate and describe continents and oceans. By the end of the session, all of the children were able to locate Pip's home. 

What did the children in KS1 enjoy this half term?

Year 1 - I love finding out about different places and seeing where all of my friends live. I enjoyed locating our homes on the map.

Year 2 - I have loved finding out about Antarctica this half term. I found it really interesting to find out how the Arctic is different to Antarctica.

Year 2 - I like to learn about different countries. I enjoy comparing countries and exploring their similarities and differences.

Autumn in KS2

In Geography across KS2, the children have been using a map to locate key places linked to their learning. In Year 3, the children were using a map and grid references to locate Florida and other states in the USA.  They are looking forward to finding out more about the Sunshine State. 

01.03.23 Year 2 Farm trip

Year 2 have been on a trip to the farm to enhance their learning in their current Geography topic: 'Why does it matter where my food comes from?'. We have had a lovely trip to Peepy Farm and Bywell Estate this week. Firstly, we arrived at Peepy Farm and we had the opportunity to make butter. We had to shake the full fat cream for a long time before it turned it to butter but it was worth it for how delicious it tasted. Next, learnt about the horse power of the tractor and how many horses were used in the olden days to pull things around the farm. Afterwards, we had a tour of the farm where we learnt about the cows and how they are milked every day. The children loved the calves they were so cute! In the afternoon, we went to Bywell Estate and we got to taste the cheese and milk which was produced at Peepy Farm and then we had an egg hunt. We had a very busy day but it was so much fun!

08.02.23 LKS2 Climates

LKS2 have been investigating climates around the world during their Spring Geography topic. They have been looking at some very complicated climate graphs!

08/02/23 Northumbria University visitors

Year 1 were lucky enough to have to geographers from Northumbria university. They were both Glaciologist who study glaciers in Antarctica. One being a mathematician and one being a geologist. Ronya (the mathematician) looks into the future with her computer models but Kate (the geologist) looks into the past. 

After learning about the weather in Antarctica ourselves and why it is a desert, it was amazing to meet people that had actually been there. We watched a video of how the got there; first a plane and then a boat- it took them two months!!

They showed us how glaciers are formed and discussed what they are researching about them. 

They even brought and gave us the chance to hold rocks all the way from Antarctica. They had fossils in them which tells us that there used to be plants so it wasn’t always covered in ice.

We also learnt about some of their equipment they took with them to conduct experiments, one of these things being a radar. It was amazing to hear it was a Sledge has a computer on in. It sends a signal down into the ice and creates a picture of what it’s like underneath the surface. It works just like an X-ray, allows us to see what’s under the ice.

Another way they learnt about the ice was by taking ice cores. To due this they use a huge drill to drill deep down into the ice and pull up a tube of ice. They then cut into slices to learn about it or melt it and see what’s left behind and then they can learn different things.

Thank you so much to Kate and Rhonda for coming to visit us. We’re feeling I inspired about potential careers in Geography now!

13.10.22

In Geography this half term, UKS2 have been looking at mountains. Today, we have been investigating the mystery involving Irvine and Mallory! 

George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were two British mountaineers who, in 1924 with basic equipment and very little supplementary oxygen by modern standards, attempted to climb to the summit of Everest. At 12:50 pm on 8 June 1924, they were seen for the last time by Noel Odell. They were never seen again until the body of Mallory was discovered in 1999. Irvine has never been found.  Take a look at our Geography work below!

27.09.22

Year 2 have been exploring the globe! Our topic this half term has allowed us to learn about the location of the Arctic and Antarctica and compare the two.

26.09.22

On Monday 26th September Year 4 were very lucky to be visited by Civil Engineer Jessica Clark. This linked really well with our sustainable geography topic. Jessica showed us some amazing projects she is involved in and what her job consists of. She then presented the importance of sustainability and looking after our environment. We  worked in teams to design a sustainable product and present it to the rest of the class. The children had fantastic ideas and I'm sure some will definitely consider a career path in Civil Engineering!

13.09.22

Muddy Monsters came to visit LKS2 week and our focus was orienteering in forest school. During our orienteering session, we learnt about why maps are so useful and how to make sure our map was held in the correct position. We also learnt what the different symbols and colours represented on an orienteering map. We participated in both Star Orienteering (where you meet back at the start after each control point) and Course Orienteering (where you follow a route, collecting information from different control points). Phil said we were amazing! Well done.

12.09.22

Year 1 have been learning about what it's like where they live. They explored a map of the UK and were able to find where Gateshead was. They then went on a walk around the local area to see what human and phyiscal features they could find.