At St Joseph's CE Junior School, we aim to inspire children to raise and answer questions about the natural and human world and their involvement within this. Our exciting curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced, successfully adapted, designed and developed for all children and underpinned by current research. It is our intention to ensure that each child secures both locational and place knowledge relating to the locality of Chichester as well as that of the British Isles, Europe and other worldwide continents.

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the framework and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

To draw on a quote, in this case from Michael Palin, ‘you can travel the seas, poles and deserts and see nothing. To really understand the world, you need to get under the skin of the people and places. In other words, learn about geography. I can’t imagine a subject more relevant in schools. We’d all be lost without it.’