INTENT
Geography: Our Geography curriculum encourages students to be curious about the world they live in and take students beyond their own experience. It aims for pupils to have an active interest in geographical events in the news at a local, national and global scale. Geography aims to create responsible global citizens through their everyday experiences who can ask geographical questions and to be able to find out the answers independently through research. Students will recognise human, physical, social, economic and environmental features and how they can change and interconnect. Our curriculum aims to encourage a desire to find out about different countries and cultures and to appreciate the diversity within the global community. Our students will take part in fieldwork in order to understand the physical and human features and processes within their local geography. The study of Geography is designed to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
IMPLEMENTATION
Year 7
Geography and adventure.
What is meant to be an explorer and how did they discover and conquer challenging and extreme environments?
Tropical Rainforests.
Why are tropical rainforests an important global ecosystem and why do they need protecting?
Population and migration
What are the global patterns of population and how has it changed over time? What factors influence a population and was China right to adopt the one child policy? What influences people to migrate and what can the impacts be?
Use of natural resources
Are natural resources being used at an unsustainable rate? How can we solve the use of resources that will eventually run out? Are natural resources used sustainably in the Middle East?
Rivers
How does the river erode, transport and deposit material? How does a river change from source to mouth? What distinctive landforms can a river create?
Coasts
How does the sea erode, transport and deposit beach material? How does a coastal landscape change over time? What are the distinctive coastal landforms and how are they formed? How can we manage a coastline to protect against coastal erosion?
Glaciation
How did the ice erode, transport and deposit material to create distinctive glacial landscapes? Why are glacial landscapes popular tourist destinations?
Year 8
Ethiopia and India
What are the physical and human characteristics of Ethiopia and India? Where are they located? How is India and Ethiopia the same? How is India and Ethiopia different?
Natural hazards
What is a natural hazard?
How are tropical storms formed and what are the consequences?
How do plate tectonics shape the land? What causes earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis and what are the consequences? How can we reduce the impacts of natural hazards?
Extreme global impacts
Extreme cities
Extreme tourism
Extreme global commons
KS 3
Years 7 and 8 Curriculum Overview
KS4 Geography GCSE OCR 9-1 Geography for Enquiring Minds.
Year 9
Global hazards
How can weather be hazardous?
How do plate tectonics shape our world?
Changing climate
What evidence is there to suggest climate change is a natural process?
Resource Reliance
Will we run out of natural resources?
Can we feed nine billion people by 2050?
Dynamic development
Why are some countries richer than others?
Are LIDCs likely to stay poor?
Year 10
Sustaining ecosystems
Why are natural ecosystems important?
Why should tropical rainforests matter to us?
Is there more to polar environments than ice?
Urban futures
Why do more than half the world’s population live in urban areas?
What are the challenges and opportunities for cities today?
Human field work.
Collecting primary data and completing a write up following the geographical enquiry process.
Year 11
Distinctive landscapes
What makes a landscape distinctive?
Why influences the landscapes of the UK?
Physical field work.
Collecting primary data and completing a write up following the geographical enquiry process.
UK in the 21st century.
How is the UK changing in the 21st century?
Is the UK losing its global significance?
Revision, exam technique and final exams.
IMPACT
Assessment takes place in every Geography lesson. Short, day to day assessment happens as google form quizzes, writing answers on mini white boards, true/false statements and teacher led questioning. Feedback can be self and peer assessment where pupils are invited to identify their own success and an area for improvement. Once a topic has been completed, pupils will complete a more formal assessment based on geography benchmarks and we can make a final evaluation of pupil achievement. This is a combination of knowledge and understanding based on shorter questions worth 1 -4 marks and then longer questions with opportunities for extended writing. Geographical skills are also assessed with analysis and interpretation of a variety of maps at different scales as well as graphs and geographical data.
In Year 7 the focus is on knowledge,(define, recall and describe) comprehension (summarize and compare) and application ( use, interpret and relate). As pupils progress into Year 8 the level of skill increases and the focus moves onto higher order thinking such as analysis ( conclusions, prioritising), synthesis, (reflect, predict, speculate, design) and evaluation (assess, judge, compare and contrast.)
KS3
At KS4 assessment is still continous during every lesson with a greater focus on recall based on the previous lesson. Pupils are given sample assessment materials and past GCSE papers at the end of a topic to evaluate knowledge and understanding plus developing their exam technique and command words. Mock exams focus on Unit 3 which is a synoptic paper covering their knowledge of the whole course and requires pupils to make links within their learning. This helps us to understand their conceptual understanding and skills by a decision making exercise.
