Geography
Our curriculum intent
Geography allows students the opportunity to explore and understand how and why the world is shaped as it is. We want to our students to be able to ‘think like geographers’ and be effective citizens of the local and global society.
Through our curriculum, students will study aspects of both the physical structure of the planet (physical geography) and the social structure (human geography). Students will be able to understand their place, but also more importantly, their impact on the world around them, make well informed decisions and judgements, and be compassionate citizens. In each year, students will have the opportunity to experience either on-site or off-site fieldwork activities to apply their geographical knowledge to where they live, and understand the geography of their local area. They will also study a range of countries and continents to contextualise what they are learning.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum enables students who don’t choose the option at GCSE level, to leave school with an understanding of their world and the skills which can be transferred into a number of subjects and employment in the future. For those who opt for GCSE, they will enter their course with both a knowledge-rich and a skills-rich foundation to enable them to achieve well in Geography.
What this looks like in practice
Geography is all about the world in which we live and on which we depend. Landscapes, peoples, places and our fragile planet are all linked together. Geography gives us a clear understanding of how all of these things exist together for the benefit of every living thing.
The teachers here clearly understand how important it is that young people understand how learning through Geography is a magnificent way of fostering environmental responsibility, sustainable development and cultural awareness.
It is the philosophy of our department to ensure that students enjoy Geography and we use a variety of teaching methods and resources to bring the planet into our classrooms. We are lucky that we are teaching a subject that changes every day, a volcano may erupt, a tsunami may strike or a city may grow in size. All of these things are relevant in young people’s lives and we are able to bring this up to date knowledge and understanding into geography lessons.
In Key Stage 3, students cover a wide range of topics such as:
- Map skills
- Weather and climate
- Economic activity
- Ecosystems
- The geography of the UK, Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa
- Rivers and glaciation
- Globalisation and superpowers
- Population and urbanisation
- Coastal landscapes
- Natural resources
- Geological timescales and plate tectonics
In Key Stage 4, students can select Geography as an option subject where they will follow the AQA GCSE Specification. This GCSE is split into three papers: Living with the Physical Environment, Challenges in the Human Environment, and Geographical Applications. The specification can be found at the following link:
AQA GCSE Geography Specification
Curriculum overview
Detailed information about the curriculum for each year group can be found in the document below.
Useful links
Students should make use of these links to help them with any homework and revision for Geography.
PiXL Geography App (GCSE Students can download the PiXL App and log in)