Geography at Foundry Lane is taught through topics covering all the areas of the Geography National Curriculum: locational knowledge, place knowledge, physical and human geography, and geographical skills and fieldwork.

Our Geography Vision

At Foundry Lane, we aim to engage and fascinate our children about the world we live in and to encourage pupils to be curious and enthusiastic to discover the world around them both near and far through the teaching of Geography.

We want children to have an awareness of the diversity of landscapes across the world and how these have developed in the way they have. We aim to encourage our children to see how humans have had an impact on the world in a range of ways, both positive and negative, and our responsibilities within this. We aim to help children to make sense of, understand and thrive within the unique context of the Shirley area that they live in, using our proximity to the City of Southampton, the M27 and our place within the world around us. We do this by giving children a variety of experiences including trips, residentials and curriculum days. Pupils are equipped with knowledge about local and global locations while deepening their understanding of different places and geographical processes, and how the physical and human worlds interact.

Our Geography learning links to our school values; children will develop a love for Geography and immerse themselves into their local community and the world we live in. They will show kindness to the environment and appreciate the natural world and aspire and be resilient to take the skills and knowledge that they have learnt throughout their time at Foundry Lane and build upon these after they leave. Geography will support children to become creative, independent learners in the wider world and be able to problem solve using their critical thinking that they have developed throughout their years at Foundry Lane. 

Our Geography topics for 2025-26 are:

• Year R - Let's Explore
• Year 1 - Our Wonderful World, Big Lights Big City
• Year 2 - Lets explore the world, Coastline
• Year 3 - One Planet Our World, Rock, Relic and Rumbles
• Year 4 - Interconnected World, Misty Mountain Winding River
• Year 5 - Investigating Our World, Sow, Grow and Farm
• Year 6 - Our Changing World, Frozen Kingdom

The children also have the opportunity to enhance their fieldwork skills on geography-themed trips, including Year 6 developing their map and compass skills on their week-long residential at Stubbington Study Centre in November. Year 2 also visit Lepe Beach in the spring term to compliment their work on Coasts. 

Our Geography display is regularly updated to show what Geography is happening across the school with excellent examples of work. 

Children use a range of resources in their Geography lessons to develop their locational and place knowledge as well as their Physical and Human Geography including Ordnance Survey Maps, Google Earth and Digimaps for Schools. This helps children to develop their Geographical skills including grid references, scale, contour lines, compass points and ability to compare maps and discuss changes over time. 

How can I support my child at home?

Discuss your child's Geography learning with them at home. Please find the relevant knowledge organiser for your child in the knowledge organiser tab on the right-hand side. You can read this with your child, which includes the core knowledge needed by the end of the unit. You can also do some further reading and research around this to support their understanding. 

Geography Websites to support learning:

Mapping Websites:

Digimaps for Schools - Digimap for Schools is an online mapping service Foundry Lane Primary school subscribes to. It is used to provide easy access to a range of current and historical Ordnance Survey maps and aerial photography. Logins can be provided to pupils if needed.

Ordnance Survey - A useful, child friendly website. An introduction for Key Stage 2 on how maps work and how to interpret them. It includes these 8 sections: starting mapping, symbols, compasses and directions, grid references, understanding scale, measuring distance, relief and contour lines and compass bearings.

Street Map - Search for local street maps by postcode, OS grid reference, place name or street name. Maps are extendable in eight compass directions.

Google Maps - Online mapping site which includes eye level ‘Streetview’

Places, Images and Photographs:

Geograph: The Geograph Britain and Ireland project aims to collect geographical photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland, and you can be part of it.

Travel Images: Photographic images of countries which can be selected by continent then by country.

Virtual Travel:

Kids World Travel Guide: Excellent website: children-friendly, unique ‘Kids World Travel Guide’ for all. It tells you about countries and people and will provide great tips and advice for your family holidays around the world.

Google Arts and Culture: Dreaming of a day out by the sea or a trip to a museum? With Google Arts & Culture Places you can explore the world from the comfort of your sofa (and without the jet lag and plane ride, too!).

Geographical Facts and Information:

Primary Homework Help!

DK Find Out!

National Geographic Kids

Geographical Games:

National Geographic Kids: Fun Geography games and quizzes for children!

Map Zone: Highly recommend! A variety of games, trivia quizzes and help with map skills, plus you can delve into some fascinating topics about the world around you.

World Geography Games: Brain-engaging geography map games: Test and learn countries of the world, capitals, flags, US States, continents, oceans, mountains, rivers, islands, landmarks and much more. You can play in different languages too, if you fancy an even bigger challenge! Games are free to play so you’ll be a geography whizz by the end of the month!

Zoomtastic - A game about learning geography. You have 30 seconds to identify the country in this game! A satellite image with a “zoomed-in” map appears on the screen. As it slowly zooms out, once every three seconds, additional information comes into view, such as the name of a river or town. After 10 seconds, you are given four possible choices from which to choose the correct answer. The novelty of this game draws you in, and it’s a fun way to learn more about the world’s countries, physical feature and bodies of water!

Apps to support with Geography:

Geo Challenge App (Android, iPhone, iPad but with in-app purchases and adverts – Age 7+)

Geo Challenge is a fun and challenging world geography quiz game with beautiful graphics and animation to test your geography knowledge of the world. This exciting geography game comes with 4 mini-quiz to test your knowledge in 4 categories: country flags, country borders, major cities of the world and famous landmarks around the world.

GeoBee Challenge by National Geographic (iPad, Android – Age 9+)

The application from National Geographic is targeted at kids around the age of 9-13 years. However, this application is not suitable for beginners as some of the quizzes might be a little challenging. This amazing tool provides an excellent platform for testing the learner’s knowledge of world geography. It also allows them to pinpoint the exact location of various cities in the world.

Map of our World (iPhone, iPad – Age 12+)

‘Maps of our world’ is not only an entertaining educational game but also a valuable reference tool for people of all ages looking to expand their Geography knowledge. In fact, this is the first geography app for the iPad that offers comprehensive physical maps with features like rivers, mountains and deserts of the world!  Upon entry of Our World, you are presented with some interesting facts like the number of countries in the world, the total population and the area of the globe in km squared. Political map is a plain map where countries are shown by clear and distinct lines. Here you learn where the top countries and cities are located around the world. Physical map is the most challenging. Here you have an image of the world in its natural, geographical state with faint lines separating countries and one has to learn where the top rivers, lakes, seas, mountains and deserts are located. 

Planet Geo  (iPhone, iPad – Age 3+)

Planet Geo - geography App is a game and information app that tests children’s knowledge of many countries, dozens of cities, and UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, in eight language. Children are given the option to play up to 6 interactive games.

Geo Touch: Learn Geography (iPhone, iPad – Age 5+)

Geo Touch: Learn Geography app takes a kinaesthetic approach to app learning, players place countries into a map like pieces in a puzzle. Geo Touch is good for learning the countries of the world, but doesn’t have every single country in the world. The quizzes reinforce the new and old information as they are cumulative. The app also allows you to learn capitals and flags of various countries.

Mobo Kids Puzzle World (Android, iPhone, iPad – Age 2+)

Puzzle World is an app designed to help your child with geography. The app has a number of countries to discover each with colourful illustrations and fitting puzzle parts, related to the culture and iconic features. Children learn about national traditions, geography, anthems, country flags and monuments.