Geography is taught through a practical, sensory-rich, and accessible curriculum that enables pupils to explore their environment, understand their place in the world, and develop early spatial and observational skills.

We carefully build knowledge and skills over time, with adaptations to suit a wide range of learning needs, communication methods, and sensory profiles. Teaching begins with the immediate environment, supporting pupils to recognise familiar people, places, and features, and gradually progresses to the local area, the UK, Europe, and the wider world.

Our curriculum is underpinned by hands-on experiences, visual supports, models, photographs, and digital tools. Pupils engage in structured fieldwork, mapmaking, route-following, and observation tasks that are accessible and meaningful, encouraging active exploration, curiosity, and communication.

Through carefully scaffolded learning, pupils develop the ability to:

• Recognise and name familiar places, people, and features in their environment.
• Distinguish between human/man-made and physical/natural features.
• Observe, describe, and communicate their understanding of local environments, including changes over time and the effects of human activity.
• Use simple maps, symbols, and keys to represent locations and routes, progressing to globes, atlases, and digital mapping.
•  Explore spatial concepts, including proximity (near/far), direction (right/left), and compass points (N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW).
• Collect, record, and present data from fieldwork, including surveys, tally charts, and sketches, to understand settlements, land use, and environmental features.
•  Develop an awareness of the wider world, including the continents, oceans, the UK, and Europe, and begin to relate these to their own lives.

Our progression is designed to move pupils from concrete understanding—recognising familiar rooms, playgrounds, or local streets—towards more abstract concepts, such as mapping journeys, interpreting aerial photographs, and understanding environmental processes. Learning is repetitive and cumulative, revisiting knowledge and skills across the three strands of Geography: Locational Knowledge, Human & Physical Geography, and Geographical Skills & Fieldwork.

Ultimately, our Geography curriculum ensures that every pupil at Hedgewood School:

•  Gains a sense of curiosity and belonging in the world around them.
• Develops the confidence to explore, observe, and communicate about places.
• Understands the relationship between people, the environment, and the wider world in ways that are accessible, meaningful, and memorable.