Planning for the curriculum and children’s learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage uses the elements of the EYFS statutory framework rather than the subject disciplines of the National Curriculum. This planning is supported by the use of the non-statutory Development Matters guidance.

The EYFS curriculum starts with the child’s experience in their family and in their immediate environment. The content of the curriculum is often guided by teachers in response to children’s interests and planning needs to take account of the balance between deliberate teaching and spontaneous learning driven by curiosity and purpose.

Children’s experiences and learning which, once they are in KS1, can be thought of as typical of work in Geography may in Early Years draw upon all the areas of learning - Communication and Language, Personal Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. There will be a strong connection between what children achieve in what is called Understanding the World and what they will develop in KS1 in Geography, but developmental learning for children in EYFS is not linear, it proceeds in a web of multiple strands. For example, the development of the language associated with movement and position, and describing routes and locations, which will be a strong feature of children observing change in the natural world and the relationships between objects in their play, do not feature in the end of EYFS assessment statements for Understanding the World, but reflect aspects of Mathematics. Similarly, the foundational knowledge about similarities and differences between different people with each other is outlined in People, Culture and Communities rather than what could be read as geographical elements of Understanding the World.

In our schools, the experiences children gain across the EYFS curriculum are rich in opportunities to investigate and explore their environment, to speculate and make choices to support their ideas, and to articulate their thinking within their play and within structured activities. The way in which the curriculum is designed and experienced by the children supports the development of the characteristics of effective learning in EYFS: playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. These are foundational to what lies at the centre of the subject discipline of Geography: close observation and exploration of the natural world, curiosity in their play, asking questions, noticing similarities and differences, watching how things happen and change and wondering why this is so, and describing what they see, hear and feel.

Examples of a range of activities, planned with reference to Development Matters, enable children typically, across a range of contexts,

• To draw information from a simple map.
• Recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
• Explore the natural world around them.
• Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live.
• Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps.
• Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and (when appropriate) maps.
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons.

All of these experiences and knowledge gained provide a secure foundation for what they will encounter in Geography in KS1 and beyond.