Whilst learning the History about life in Britain after the Roman withdrawal, and Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions up to the Norman conquest, the children will investigate maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features on maps showing the invasions. They will look at the direction of each invading group and some of the physical and human features they would have encountered. They will be taught that the geography of Britain affected invading groups in many ways. Physical features, such as the sea, high cliffs, marshland and mountains made invasion and travel in Britain difficult and affected which area the invaders landed in and conquered. Physical features, such as roads and bridges could have helped invading forces, but hillforts would have created barriers between the invading forces and the Britons.

This is the main Geography project studied in Year 4. This project teaches children about the characteristics and features of rivers and mountain ranges around the world, including a detailed exploration of the ecosystems and processes that shape them and the land around them.

The children will investigate the River Thames, using Google Maps, and its associated tools, to explore the upper, middle and lower courses of the river, collecting information and exploring the river's features. They will learn about the journey of a river and the characteristics of each stage.

They will use Google Earth to view an aerial perspective of the River Trent and will locate its source, the Head of Trent, at Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire, and trace its journey to its mouth at the Humber Estuary. They will use maps and atlases to help identify human and physical features along the river’s journey. They will then identify and locate human and physical features along the river using four or six-figure grid references, symbols and the key. The children will be instructed to use their knowledge to write a geographical description of the River Trent. They will be encouraged to include an explanation for how the features identified are interconnected and link to the river, using their knowledge and further research to help.

The children will explain how the physical processes of a river, sea or ocean have changed a landscape over time, describing and explaining the transportation of materials by rivers. They will focus on erosion, transportation and deposition.

The project encourages the children to locate rivers of the world using the index of atlases and online research. They will name, locate and explain the importance of significant rivers. Significant rivers include the Mississippi, Nile, Thames, Amazon, Volga, Zambezi, Mekong, Ganges, Danube and Yangtze.

They will learn about the uses of rivers and learn why rivers are so important. They will know that rivers are used for leisure, farming, generating energy, transportation and settlements.

This project looks at mountains and what a mountain is. They will Identify, describe and explain the formation of different mountain types. They will look at different types of mountains and make comparisons. They will sort the mountains into groups: dome, fault-block, fold, plateau and volcanic.

The children will identify the topography of an area of the UK using contour lines on a map. They will introduced to the purpose and interpretation of contour lines, identifying the peaks and height of the landscape. They will identify other peaks on the map, recording their name, height in metres and four or six figure grid reference.

The children will move onto describing the mountain ranges' locations in the UK using cardinal and intercardinal compass points. They will then move onto looking at mountains around the world. They will use maps or atlases to find and study the location of each mountain, highlighting and revisiting the names and locations of continents and countries when looking at the location of each mountain range.

Whilst looking at the Science of rivers and mountains, the children will study the Water cycle and the four stages; evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. They will also look at altitudinal zonation on mountains and understand that due to the varying altitude of mountainous areas, different habitats can exist, with a habitat near the top of a mountain being very different to one at the bottom. The project looks at flooding and how it causes problems for people and the environment. In particular, they will look at the Somerset Levels flooding. They will also describe the properties of different types of soil, including clay, sandy, silty and loamy.

Whilst studying the history of Ancient civilisations, the children will look at the Geography of the development of Ancient Sumer. They will navigate maps, atlases and online tools to understand the location of ancient Sumer. They will understand that the ancient civilisation grew due to the Fertile Crescent, rivers and floodplains. They will describe and understand key aspects of physical Geography, whilst learning about the food and farming of Ancient Sumer.

The children will also look at Ancient Egypt and discover the location using map and atlases. They will look at Ancient Egypt’s key physical and human characteristics.