Geography
At Hanging Heaton CE (VC) J&I School, we use the Kapow Primary Geography scheme to ensure that our Geography curriculum is engaging, progressive and well-sequenced across all year groups. Kapow provides a clear framework of knowledge and skills that builds year on year, supporting pupils to develop a deeper understanding of geographical concepts as they move through school. The scheme is particularly well suited to our mixed-age classes, as it offers flexible planning and progressive outcomes that allow teachers to adapt learning appropriately for different ages and stages within the same classroom.
Reception is planned separately to reflect the distinct Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and the importance of exploratory, play-based geographical learning. In Key Stage 1, Year 1 and Year 2 follow a two-year rolling programme, ensuring full coverage of the National Curriculum while allowing learning to be revisited and developed in greater depth. Similarly, in Key Stage 2, Year 3 and 4, as well as Year 5 and 6, follow carefully structured two-year cycles. This approach ensures that pupils experience a broad and balanced Geography curriculum without repetition, while still benefiting from revisiting key ideas and skills in a progressive way. Overall, Kapow supports high-quality teaching, effective mixed-age planning and inspires curiosity and enthusiasm for Geography across our school.
Geography Rationale
At Hanging Heaton CE (VC) J&I School, Geography is central to our vision of nurturing curious, informed, and responsible global
citizens. Through Geography, pupils explore the world around them, developing knowledge of places, people, environments, and how human and physical processes shape them. This equips pupils with the understanding and skills to engage thoughtfully with local, national, and global communities and to reflect on their responsibilities within God’s creation.
Enrichment opportunities, including local field visits, map work, environmental studies, and observation of seasonal changes and human impact, bring learning to life and strengthen links between classroom theory and the real world.
Our Geography curriculum is inclusive and accessible to all pupils. Lessons use a combination of enquiry, discussion, visual
resources, and scaffolded activities. Assessment informs planning to ensure all pupils are appropriately challenged and supported.
Intent
The intent of our Geography curriculum is to inspire pupils to think like geographers, developing curiosity, knowledge, and skills to understand and explain the world around them
Curriculum vision:
Develop pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the world and its people
Equip pupils with secure geographical knowledge and subject-specific vocabulary
Develop enquiry skills, including observation, map reading, data collection, and fieldwork
Encourage pupils to reflect on their responsibilities towards God’s creation and the wider community
National Curriculum Alignment:
The curriculum is structured around four key strands, embedded in every Kapow unit to ensure balanced coverage:
Locational knowledge: Developing sense of place, identity, scale, and global orientation
Place knowledge: Locating physical and human features and understanding them as meaningful ‘places’
Human and physical geography: Explaining environments, landscapes, processes, and change over time
Geographical skills and fieldwork: Using maps, atlases, globes, and fieldwork techniques to collect, analyse, and present
data
Pupils develop three interconnected types of knowledge:
Substantive knowledge: Key facts and concepts
Disciplinary knowledge: How geographers think, question, and work
Procedural knowledge: Skills such as map reading, fieldwork, and data handling
Global Links and Partnerships
As part of our commitment to developing informed and responsible global citizens, Hanging Heaton CE (VC) J&I School is
developing a meaningful link with Ragata Primary School in Tanzania. This partnership strengthens pupils’ understanding of global communities and enriches their geographical learning through real-world connections.
Through this developing link, pupils have opportunities to:
Learn about life, education, environment, and culture in a contrasting global locality
Compare similarities and differences between their own community and Ragata
Develop empathy, respect, and global awareness
Reflect on shared responsibilities within God’s creation
This partnership enhances pupils’ place knowledge and global perspective, making geographical learning authentic and purposeful. It supports our vision of nurturing curious, informed, and responsible citizens who understand their place within an interconnected world.
Implementation
Curriculum Organisation and Progression
Kapow provides a coherent, sequenced curriculum that builds knowledge and skills year on year. Mixed-age classes use Cycle A and Cycle B approaches to ensure coverage, progression, and revisiting of key concepts.
Reception: Continuous provision and immersive experiences develop early observational and enquiry skills
Years 1–2: Mixed-age teaching builds knowledge and vocabulary while consolidating early concepts
Years 3–4: Combined classes deepen understanding and refine geographical skills
Years 5–6: Pupils engage in complex enquiry, building on prior learning with increasing independence
The Enquiry Cycle
Each lesson follows Kapow’s enquiry cycle to help pupils think like geographers:
1. Recap and recall: Revisiting prior learning to activate knowledge, strengthen memory, and address misconceptions
2. Engage and hook: Short, interactive activity to spark curiosity (question, investigation, discussion)
3. Explore and explain: Teacher modelling, guided practice, and independent/collaborative tasks, scaffolded to support all
learners
4. Reflect and consolidate: Reviewing success criteria, discussing key learning, or applying knowledge in a new context
Inclusion and Adaptive Teaching
Lessons include scaffolding, multi-sensory approaches, structured instructions, and flexible outcomes
Collaborative and independent learning opportunities support all pupils, including those with SEND
The step-by-step curriculum ensures steady, manageable progression while maintaining challenge
The Adaptive teaching section in each lesson provides an opportunity to discuss inclusivity and demonstrate how all learners
are supported.
Spiral Curriculum
Key concepts are revisited across units and years with increasing depth and complexity
Knowledge retention, skill refinement, and meaningful connections are promoted
Pupils build mastery over time while progressing at an appropriate pace
Knowledge Organisers
Each unit includes a knowledge organiser:
Summarises essential knowledge and concepts
Lists key vocabulary
Uses visual supports (maps, diagrams, timelines)
Supports retrieval practice and independent learning
Enrichment and Fieldwork
Pupils access field visits, map-based learning, environmental studies, and observation of human and seasonal changes to reinforce classroom learning and contextualise knowledge.
Impact
As a result of this curriculum, pupils:
Retain key geographical knowledge and vocabulary
Can think critically about people, places, environments, and change
Understand interactions between human and physical processes
Demonstrate increasing confidence in enquiry, fieldwork, and data interpretation
Assessment, work scrutiny, and pupil voice show pupils make connections across units and year groups, applying prior learning to new contexts.
By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils leave as curious, reflective, and responsible individuals, prepared for the next stage of their
education, with the skills and understanding to engage thoughtfully with local, national, and global communities.
Assessment:
Formative: Kapow Primary Geography lessons include ongoing assessment opportunities, such as questioning, retrieval practice
and interactive activities. These enable teachers at Hanging Heaton to assess understanding in real time and adapt their teaching accordingly
Summative: Each unit provides an Assessment quiz and Knowledge catcher, which allow teachers to measure pupils’
understanding at key points. These tools help gauge how well pupils have retained key knowledge and skills over time.