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What is the earth made of?

What are fold mountains?

How are volcanoes made?

How does an earthquake occur?

What happens when a volcano erupts?

What happens when an earthquake occurs?

How can we protect against earthquakes?

Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes

What are the countries of Europe?

What are the physical features of Europe?

What are some of Europe's most important human characteristics?

Building Locational Knowledge: Europe

Where is Earth's water?

What makes up the weather?

Why does it rain?

Why does the UK have wild weather?

What are the reasons for seasons?

Why is the world's weather changing?

Water, Weather and Climate

What are North America's countries and physical features?

What are some of North America's most important human characteristics?

What is the climate like in parts of North America?

Building Locational Knowledge: North America

Where are the world's rivers?

How do rivers shape the land?

What landforms do rivers create? (Part 1)

What landforms do rivers create? (Part 2)

Why are rivers important to people?

What happens when a river floods?

Rivers

What is the geography of Scotland?

What is the geography of Wales?

What is the geography of Northern Ireland?

What is the geography of England?

Building Locational Knowledge: United Kingdom

UK human and physical features

Land use in the locality

Farming in the UK

Different types of land use in the UK

Using grid references to identify land use

Changing land use

The idea of land use is developed in more depth in 'Settlements: Where do people live and why?' where pupils will look at settlement patterns and make links between human and physical landscapes.

This unit builds on 'Local area: Why is (our place) special?' and other previous locality studies to develop pupils' ideas of features and the patterns of land use in the local area, and more widely in the UK, consolidating and developing what was learnt about the UK in 'The UK: What kind of place is is?'.

This unit explores how land is used in the local area and across the UK. Pupils investigate human and physical features, farming, land use types and change, using aerial photos, maps and grid references to describe and compare landscapes.

Land use: how diverse are local and UK landscapes?

The water cycle

Water flow around buildings

Water around the world

Water supply and demand in the UK

Water ownership

Water inequalities

Links to 'Rivers: What, where and how?' where knowledge of the water cycle can be applied, and to 'Climate zones: What are they and why do they matter?', where the distribution of rainfall can be used along with temperature to understand global patterns.

Links to 'Cold places: What is it like at the North and South Poles?' and 'Hot places: What is it like near the Equator?', and to work on weather and distribution of rainfall and temperature.

This unit introduces the water cycle and explores how water moves through natural and built environments. Pupils investigate how water is used, supplied and owned, and consider how access to water differs in the UK and around the world.

The water cycle: why is it important?

Introducing rivers

River processes and landforms

The river's journey

Flooding rivers

Flooding impacts and solutions

Rivers in the UK

Rivers in Europe

Mighty rivers of the world

This unit links to 'Climate zones: What are they and why do they matter?' in which the influence of climate on global geographies and environmental regions is developed with reference to understanding of the water cycle and rivers.

This unit builds on 'The water cycle: why is it important?' and develops this understanding further to investigate where water goes to and to look at where and why the major rivers are located and how local rivers are affected by weather variations. 

This unit explores how rivers change the land as they flow. Pupils learn about the journey of a river from source to mouth, the effects of flooding, and what makes rivers important. They compare rivers in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world.

Rivers: what's special about them?

Introducing climate

Using lines of latitude to locate the main climate zones

Climate data and patterns

The differences between climate zones and biomes

Adaptations of plants and animals in different biomes

Climate change

This unit directly links to settlement, understanding connections between climate and where people live. This also underpins understanding needed in 'The Americas: How diverse are its places and landscapes?', 'South America: Why does the Amazon matter?', 'Natural resources: what are they, where are they and why are they important?' and 'Farms and factories: Where does our food come from?'.

This unit builds on learning about the water cycle to develop understanding of the spatial patterns of water and energy. It also builds on 'Cold places: What is it like at the North and South Poles?' and 'Hot places: What is it like near the Equator?'. It develops on 'Contrasting locality: What is it like to live in (named location) in Jamaica?') by introducing the major lines of latitude.

This unit introduces climate zones around the world. Pupils use maps and climate data to spot patterns, compare environments, and explore how plants and animals adapt to different conditions. The unit also introduces climate change.

Climate zones: what are they and why do they matter?

Settlement features

Villages, towns and cities in the UK

Location and growth of settlements

Change in our local area

Our local town

Designing a new settlement

This unit provides a foundation for Local area: How is it changing?', which involves a detailed case study of change in the school’s local area, and 'UK region: Why is the Lake District a National Park?', which investigates settlements, land use and change at a regional scale. 

This builds on 'Land use: how diverse are local and UK landscapes?', which focuses on land use locally and in the UK as a key aspect of human geography, extending and deepening pupils' understanding of human geography processes by investigating the characteristics of different types of settlement and the reasons why settlements are initially established and then change over time.

This unit explores different types of settlements, from villages to cities. Pupils learn about settlement features, growth and location, and use their local area to understand how places change. They apply what they’ve learned by designing a new settlement.

Settlements: where do people live and why?

Our changing place

Measuring settlement change

Recording local views

Evidence from fieldwork

Mapping changes

Measuring change in a day

This unit links to further work on the UK in 'The UK: Who are we?'. 'UK region: Why is the Lake District a National Park?' and particularly to fieldwork in 'Local area: What needs changing?' where pupils will return to the theme of local change and consider what changes they would like to see in the future and gather a range of perspectives on this before making recommendations. 

This unit directly builds on work in 'Settlements: Where do people live and why?' to examine change in your local area through a large scale investigation, using mapwork and other evidence, including fieldwork.

This unit develops pupils’ fieldwork skills through an investigation of change in the local area. Pupils observe, measure, map and record evidence of change, gather local views, and begin to consider how places evolve over time.

Local area: how is it changing?

Geography

Choose a previously released unit (6)

These lessons will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

Choose a unit (6)