Geography

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Geography Curriculum Statement

“If students only ever studied Geography in KS3, what is it we want them to know/be able to do, which will ensure they can become responsible Global Citizens?” (The question that underpins our curriculum rationale)

INTENT

Our overall intent is to ensure students leave Haven High with the tools and fundamental knowledge to be responsible global citizens. When we designed our curriculum in KS3, we focussed on the question above. With the understanding that skills and basic knowledge had to be built to enable students to progress through Key Stages successfully.

As a subject, we want to ensure students gain an understanding of humans interact with the physical world. We aim for geography to be relevant to the student studying in the 21^st Century and therefore include references to current global affairs and issues.

We want to encourage students to think about Geography beyond the classroom and therefore will strive to make links between Geography, other subjects and the wider world.

This curriculum is a mixture between knowledge and transferable skills. We want students to build up their ability to ask suitable geographical questions and link their wider knowledge to the topics.

Through our curriculum, we intend to embody all elements of our PRIDE values. In particular, we will strive for excellence in academic and personal progress. We demonstrate empathy and integrity through teaching relevant, global issues. Through our professionalism, we will ensure that all students want to show their PRIDE values during their geographical studies.

IMPLEMENTATION OF EDUCATION IN GEOGRAPHY

KS3

Our KS3 curriculum is based on three broad concepts: Geographical Skills, Geographical Knowledge and Geographical Understanding. These are largely based on the ongoing criteria of Assessment Objectives at KS4.

We study geography at a local, national and global scale in line with the national curriculum. In year 7, students start with basic geographical skills that are part of a broader ‘Humanities’ curriculum based around themes.

At the end of the academic year we start to work on fieldwork investigation skills. In year 7, the aim is an in school based investigation into making the school more environmentally friendly. Students start to collect data and create a presentation to show their findings. This investigative skill is developed into year 8 with a local fieldwork investigation. The purpose of this is to instil the investigative process which is a key skill in many employment sectors.

Year 8 has been re-designed for 2019-20 academic year. This curriculum has been designed with 21^st century geography in mind. Basic Geographical skills are interleaved throughout the units in order to build and strengthen for preparation for further study. The units include, Lincolnshire, Global Citizens, Geography in the 21^st Century, World Geography, Food Security and a local fieldwork investigation. We have a greater influence on climate change, including some of the more recent issues such as plastic and the Greta Thunberg protests.

KS4

We follow the OCR B: Geography for Enquiring Minds specification. This is a single tier entry and the option to take geography is open to everyone. It has proved popular in the last few years with us doubling the number of students taking geography into KS4.

Year 9 we complete the physical geography units with a physical fieldwork unit towards the end of the academic year. This fieldwork is compulsory as part of the specification. We give students the opportunity to go to Hunstanton and investigate the impact of coastal processes.

Year 10 is predominately about Human Geography. There are four human geography units which are complex units based on local, national and global geopolitics. AT the end of the academic year, we undertake our urban fieldwork in Peterborough looking at regeneration.

Our final year of study focusses on a more holistic approach to the knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of the content and the links between them. We focus on exam skills and other geographical skills for the synoptic paper.

IMPACT

In all years, students are assessed continually throughout the year. KS3 will have a formal assessment in line with the academy assessment procedures. This is around three times a year. There will be low stakes testing in the form of homework tests on a weekly basis based on Knowledge Organisers. In addition, retention starters will be regularly used to ‘GEOG’ student’s memories.

At KS4, regular exam question practise will take place in lesson, this will be both formal and low stakes with model answers being shared. Like KS3, students will have weekly homework tests based on Knowledge Organisers. They will sit full GCSE papers in line with the Academy’s assessment policy.

Cross-curricular links and careers

Geography lends itself naturally to many cross-overs with science and maths. Much of our physical geography is also studied in biology and physics. In addition, through all key stages we will underpin some key mathematical skills, particularly graphical information and statistics. Below is a list of topics and skills that have cross-curricular links@

Animal adaptation
Orbit (Milankovitch cycle)
Hydrological cycle
Types of erosion and weathering
Habitats and ecosystems
Line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, radar charts, rose charts
Percentages, averages: mean, range, mode
Height, scale, area and co-ordinates

High level geography students are highly employable. Throughout the two key stages, we make reference to a number of different types of employment. There is explicit reference to the following:

Cartographer
Urban planner
Military
Politics/Civil Service/Government
Marine Biologists
Ecologists
Primary Industries – Agriculture, mining
Secondary industries – manufacturing
Tertiary – Various types of service including retail, education and healthcare
Quaternary – Scientific research, space engineering, biomedical science