The roots of our Geography curriculum at Fairfields are found in the Foundation Stage through our ‘Understanding the World’ teaching. Understanding the World involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community.

We learn about the Natural World around us through a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems to foster understanding of our ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends children’s familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. We know that enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.

Our Early Years curriculum allows children to enjoy explore the natural world around them and we aim to learn outside wherever possible. We provide plenty of opportunities for the children to use their senses in hands-on exploration. We visit the park, the local woods and collect natural materials to investigate and talk about.

We enjoy investigating processes and changes in the natural world around us, including day and night, the seasons and animals and their habitats. Our children learn to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things. We have Guinea pigs in the Nursery and a school dog called Daisy! In Reception we talk about recycling, reusing and how we can help save our planet.

In Early Years we investigate different countries around the world with contrasting climates through non-fiction and stories and talk about the differences we have learnt about or seen in photos. This helps us to recognise that some environments are different to the one in which we live. We have fun looking at the map of the world and seeing where our families originate from and where we have been on holiday. In Nursery the children enjoy following Barnaby Bear on his travels and through reading books, looking at photos, watching native dances and inviting visitors in to talk to us, our children recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries. 

By observing our local area and drawing maps from our house to school we also learn how maps work. We enjoy making story maps to re tell our favourite stories, treasure maps and maps for emergency service vehicles.

Our Early Years curriculum develops early geographical skills and knowledge to equip our children for the next step of their learning.