ABSTRACT
Geography isnot a new subject but, until recently, its existence in the primary school curriculum has been spasmodic and very often coincidental. The inclusion of geography as one of the foundation subjects in the National Curriculum, and therefore a subject which should form a compulsory part of every child’s school experience, has changed that. The geography that did exist pre National Curriculum was usually something incidental to a wider ‘topic’, or something to do with maps or a part of ‘local studies’. It may well have been little more than the occasional book based study of a place, often distant and usually exotic, the end product being an attractively presented ‘project’. Or alternatively, geography was about maps. Consequently, the main skills that children learned were simple map skills without any practical application.
