Geography Intent at Holy Family

Geography is essentially about understanding the world we live in. It helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. At Holy Family, children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it and to enhance their cultural capital and know about life beyond Stainforth. The geography curriculum enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferrable to other curriculum areas. Geography is an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. At Holy Family our intent, when teaching geography, is to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and people within it; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

 In this lesson, the children developed their understanding of where they go to school and what is it like there.

Geography Learning from 2024-2025

Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Cleethorpes. The children listened carefully at the RNLI and asked lots of thoughtful questions. After that, they went onto the beach, had their picnic and had lots of sandy fun. They ended the day with delicious ice creams.

The children listened to the direction song and created a map of the seaside. They used compass points to navigate a beebot through the map to reach different landmarks.

The children read the story 'Walking through the Jungle' and talked about the contrasting environments they could see and what they would find there. The children then created their own contrasting environments - a desert, a polar region, a city and the country.

Year 2 had a fantastic day out at Yorkshire Wildlife Park! The children were wonderfully well-behaved and full of curiosity as they explored the park, spotting amazing animals from around the world — from roaring lions to playful lemurs. Everyone enjoyed learning about wildlife conservation and asking brilliant questions. It was a wild adventure to remember!

Children had a variety of pictures of families from different cultural backgrounds doing similar activities, eating, playing, celebrating. Children were encouraged to find similarities in the images and discuss differences they notice. 

Children also had 'Storytime with Multicultural Books'. These books showcased different cultural traditions and children identified different homes. To complete the children's experience, they all made a handprint World mural. They dipped their hands in different shades of paint to create a mural of handprints representing diversity. Children discussed how hands look slightly different but still do the same things such as wave, clap and hold.

The nursery children have been learning about the celebration Lunar New Year. They have made dragons, decorated lanterns and even learnt a dragon dance.

Children in Reception learnt all about contrasting environments. They used non-fiction books to look at similarities and differences between two environments and used their fine motor skills to sort different animals and to create a collage using colour for a purpose. 

During the first lesson in our new topic 'Planet Earth' children visited the globe and spotted the seven continents. Children also worked in small groups to fact find and then presented their findings to the rest of the class! 

In Geography, Year completed Mapping around the World. We learnt about the different types of maps and their uses and completed some fieldwork in our local area

Here is a few pictures of our display and children’s learning from our most recent topic. They have enjoyed learning about UK Land and settlements. 

FS1 - Understanding the World

The FS1 children explored their immediate environment this week with a walk around school. The children really enjoyed getting to know their school and the people who work in it. We visited lots of different places!

Children in Reception used the display to talk about where they live and what their environment looks like. Some children named the road and the City they live, the number they live at and they knew the name of our school.

The children went outside to explore the local area using their senses.