Geography
Subject Leader (Geography) - Mr P Mason
Statement of curriculum intent
Geography helps students to make sense of their immediate and more distant environments. It helps students to develop an understanding of the processes that give rise to patterns and variety on the Earth's surface and to gain a better appreciation and understanding of the variety and interdependence of physical and human factors. The Geography department supports the schools ethos of enjoy, enrich and achieve within our broad & balanced curriculum by promoting our own core values, which are summarised below:
Global citizenship – To enable students to be able to gain an understanding of the wider world and to comprehend how global factors influence their lives and how their decisions can have global influence. Encouraging students to develop the knowledge, skills and British values that they need to engage with the world.
Environmental awareness - For students to gain a coherent knowledge of how human activity can have an impact upon the environment and develop critical thinking skills in regard to developing an understanding of how environmental degradation impacts upon human activity.
Inspire - We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote the children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
Transferable skills in Geography - Helping students to use geography to develop their core skills and to gain an understanding of the importance of these skills in developing geographical knowledge.
Implementation
Themes is Geography:
Our department implements four key themes in Geography that begin in KS3 and progress throughout KS4 & KS5. These creates a structure for our teaching and help to generate the building blocks for the cognitive development of our students. These themes are outlined below:
Physical processes - The scientific study of the natural features of the Earth's surface, especially in its current aspects, including land formation, climate, hazards and distribution and characteristics of the world’s ecosystems.
Human processes - The study of the different ways in which human societies develop and function in relation to their physical environment.
Environmental studies – The study of how society impacts upon the natural environment and the consequences of these impacts. To examine how society can manage these consequences.
Geographical skills – The progression in student’s abilities to understand and apply enquiry related skills. These include cartographic, mathematical, evaluative skills.
The implementation of our four key themes are summarised in this diagram. Whilst in KS3 the foundations in cognitive understanding are developed, these are subsequently developed to assist students in advancing their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Although similar topics appear at different key stages, repetition has been avoided as students are challenged in the manner that they study new places. For example at the beginning of students learning journey they are expected gain knowledge and understand how geographical processes operate. This then develops into the ability to critically analyse and then evaluate these processes. This is illustrated by the following coastal questioning sequence:
- How does longshore drift cause a coastal spit to form?
- Outline the coastal processes that have led to the formation of one landform found in a coastal landscape.
- Evaluate the role of exogenous factors in the formation of the coastal landscapes.
Fieldwork opportunities
Fieldwork is fundamental to the study of geography – it makes the subject come alive, promotes enthusiasm and motivates students. Fieldwork creates the necessary opportunities for students to engage and develop a deep understanding of geographical processes and enquiry. With this is mind our department ensures that students have the opportunity to participate in out of classroom learning, this has seen us visit Walton on the Naze, Liverpool and Wales, Greenwich, India and Iceland as well as Shanghai and Nanjing in China to visit our partner school.
British values
The nature of our geography curriculum allows it to create a vehicle to promote our British values, throughout each of the key stages. The topics we teach help to promote students understanding of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, and for those without faith. For additional information, please open the following link.
Useful websites