Geography

Geography

Our Five-year curriculum is based around seven ‘big ideas’ – environments, processes, patterns, interaction, change, perspectives and sustainability. These also tie in with the Academy’s wider Curriculum Themes. Our classrooms feature displays designed to encourage our young geographers to link their ideas and learning…not to see each new topic as isolated from the last one etc.

All students study Geography in years 7-9 in line with the National Curriculum but our learning has been carefully sequenced so that whether or not students complete the full five-year curriculum, they will have a much better range and depth of knowledge and a suite of transferable skills by the end of their time in our care. They will also be able to connect their learning both within geography but also between geography and their other subjects.

Year 7 – exploring the UK

• What is a Geographer?
• The People of the UK
• Landscapes in the UK
• The UK economy
• Weather in the UK
• River Landscapes in the UK (including Fieldwork to Hubbards Hills)

Year 8 – exploring the wider world

• Coastal Landscapes in the UK
• Exploring Africa
• The Almighty Dollar
• Desert environments
• The Middle East
• Oceans in Trouble?

Year 9 – Geography in Focus –

• Rainforests in Trouble?
• Tectonic Hazards
• Development…Our Unequal World
• World Population growth – challenge or opportunity?
• Ice – Past, Present and Future?
• Our Changing Climate

In Years 10 and 11, GCSE Geography students embark on the Eduqas B specification. This course aims to enable learners to think ‘like a geographer’. Learners will develop the skills necessary to conduct framed enquiries in the classroom and in the field in order to develop their understanding of specialised geographical concepts and current geographical issues. By following this specification learners will achieve the following objectives:

• develop the ability to think creatively, for example, by posing questions that relate to geographical process and concepts that include questioning about spatial pattern and geographical change.
• develop the ability to think scientifically by collecting and recording appropriate evidence from a range of sources, including fieldwork, before critically assessing the validity of this evidence and synthesising their findings to reach evidenced conclusions that relate to the initial aim of their enquiry.
• develop the ability to think independently by applying geographical knowledge, understanding, skills and approaches appropriately and creatively to real world contexts. In so doing they should appreciate that geography can be ‘messy’ i.e. that real geography does not always match typical or predicted outcomes.

Year 10 – Changing Places – Changing Economies – here we study a range of patterns and processes revolving around urban and rural change both in the UK and the wider world. Our Urban Fieldwork enquiry will happen during this section of the course. We also investigate the causes and consequences of differing levels of development. Enquiry-base learning and Problem-Solving form key components of this theme.

Changing Environments – in this unit we investigate coastal processes and their management (with fieldwork included), weather and climate, extreme weather and climate change

Year 11 – Changing Environments (continued) – building on our work from the end of Year 10, we study river landscapes – their processes, landforms and management of flood risk

Environmental Challenges – the final part of the ‘Knowledge’ component sees us focus on two contrasting biomes and the challenges facing them as well as how these challenges are being met.

The subject content from these three themes will be assessed across three exam papers to be sat in Summer of Year 11, roughly broken down into three main areas – Knowledge, Problem-Solving and Skills.