What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

What is Geography?

This unit is an opportunity to gauge students past experience with geography at KS2.

It also allows us to introduce the 3 main themes that run through geography – change, impact and inequality.

Kenya (goes into Spring 2)

Having gained an understanding of how varied the continent of Africa is, we now delve deeper by exploring the country of Kenya.  Pupils explore, through map work, the impact that patterns of climate have on the population of Kenya.  Life in Kenya is explored through examining the impact that flower farming has within Kenya and its importance is debated in lessons.  Further themes of inequality are explored as we look at what life is like in the capital city, Nairobi. 

Hydrology and Rivers

Pupils work to understand the river processes and to understand how they change the landscape around us.  

We examine the process that take place in a river and look the impact these processes have on the land.  An exploration of Tewkesbury gives the opportunity to examine why floods occur and the impact that they have on people in the United Kingdom. 

Africa (goes into Spring 1)

Learning in class focuses on an exploration of the Continent in Africa.  We look at and examine the physical landscape, population, history, climate and biomes. 

This allows us to begin to explore the causes and consequences of uneven world development and the role of Britain in the past.  It allows the opportunity to challenge stereotypes students may have of places.

This provides the early foundation of students’ understanding of the varying human and physical attributes of a landscape. 

-           

United Kingdom

An exploration of the United Kingdom to gain an understanding that both physical and human geography changes across the United Kingdom.

We work to gain an understanding of how the variations within the UK impacts the people living in different areas, including our own.  There are opportunities to explore our local area and to investigate how a diverse population impacts our local area.

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Ecosystems

Pupils begin by exploring the different biomes that exist on earth and their distribution.  This then leads us in to a closer examination of the Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem.  Pupils work to understand the way and reasons that humans change the landscape.  It is an important theme in Geography to understand the impacts that our actions have on the natural world both now and in the future and how these impacts can be managed.

Climate Change

An important topic for pupils to understand in this ever-changing world.  It is important for pupils to understand how and why the world we are living in changing and the role that we play in contributing to these changes.  Will these changes to the world affect us?

We evaluate what the impact of these changes are in different places around the world. This enables students to participate in discussions about the impacts of the climate change/global warming that we see in the news. We look at ways of reducing climate change and how inequality leads to different impacts of global warming.

Urbanisation

 Following on from population, this builds on knowledge of how the world has changed in regards to distribution and how the role of cities continues to change.   This allows for exploration of sustainability in regards to human geography. 

Continuing with the key themes in Geography of impact and inequality, we aim understand that the changes in cities has an impact on the people in the cities and that these changes can lead to inequality.

Coasts

Building on the knowledge gained about rivers and their processes in Year 7 , we examine the coastline of the United Kingdom.

Pupils to understand the impacts that these natural processes can have on humans and alternatively how human action can influence the processes, with a focus on the Jurassic Coast.  Pupils debate why all coastal areas are not treated the same and use this to build decision making skills.

 Map skills

Pupils learn about different map skills that are used in geography and time is spent putting these skills to practical use.  Pupils will use these skills throughout their time in Geography so it is important that they have a solid foundation in the use of maps.

Skills explored include:

- Use of direction

- Scale

- Measuring distance

- Grid referencing

 Population

Building on the skills gained in year 7, we examine the issue of global population and the potential problems created by a world population of over 8 billion.  The aim is to understand how the world’s population has changed over time and the reasons for this. 

We examine global statistics to understand how changes in populations can impact a country socially, economically and environmentally.

Natural Resources

This topic aims to build on the pupils growing knowledge of humans and the demands we place on the earth.  This unit tackles the topics of inequality in regards to the distribution of resources and the impacts that this has on people’s lives.  It explores big questions such as ‘do we have enough food?’ and ‘are we running out of fossil fuels/’.

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Weather and Climate

Building on pupils knowledge from years 7 and 8, pupils look at what weather and climate are and how it is changing. We examine how weather and climate changes impact our lives and how tropical storms are becoming more frequent.

Students develop their evaluation skills by looking at the impact of weather and climate in their own lives and on other people around the world, including on ecosystems. A detailed study of Hurricane Katrina allows pupils to understand the impacts of tropical storms and how inequality leads to different impacts of weather and climate.

Development

Creating the building blocks of GCSE geography, pupils aim to understand how and why countries around the world are at different levels of development and why different places are developing at different rates. Through examination of two Malawi and Singapore, pupils gain an understanding of development and changes within two contrasting countries. Pupils engage in an independent project around Middle East countries.

Pupils are encouraged to think about their own standard of living compared to others around the world and to consider their experiences and role in development. There is an emphasis on understanding that there is inequality in different places depending on their level of development. It allows the opportunity to challenge stereotypes students may have of places.

Geographical Enquiry

This topic centres around creating and carrying out an investigation of the regeneration of Elephant and Castle.  Pupils plan an investigation to evaluate what the impact of the regeneration projects has been and will be on residents and visitors to the local area.  

Asia and Globalisation

This detailed study of the world’s biggest continent, consolidates pupils prior knowledge of climate and population, while exploring new topics such as globalisation and their own role in ‘fast fashion’.  This topic examines the changing economy of the United Kingdom and our links to other economies in the world, particularly China.  Pupils evaluate the impact of these changes and debate their own impact on other countries.  This also allows us to challenge stereotypes that may exist of certain places and people. 

Restless Earth

Key stage 3 wraps up with a look at the power of the earth. Through the study of earthquakes and volcanoes, we learn about why natural disasters occur and the impacts these have on millions of people around the world.  Evaluation of the impacts and responses to these disasters allow pupils to develop debating and justification skills in their writing.    Pupils are encouraged to use their knowledge of the inequality that exists in the world to examine the impacts of disasters and how they vary around the world.

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Urban Futures

Pupils examine through maps and small scale case studies why urbanisation rates are changing around the world and the impacts these have. Pupils develop a sense that people around the world have different reasons for living where they do compared to themselves.

Through learning case studies based on London and Lagos, students  develop an understanding of what different cities around the world are like and addressing misconceptions. They examine what the impact of changes in urban patterns have been in London, UK and Lagos, Nigeria and work to understand how inequality exists within cities in both ACs and LIDCs

UK in the 21^st Century

A study of many facets of life in the United Kingdom.  This topic explores the key human and physical features of the UK and how these aspects have changed over time.  This topic questions the UK’s role on a global scale by examining its role in recent global conflicts, the influence that media has on the UK and its reputation and how immigration has shaped the city around us. 

Dynamic Development

This topic focuses on critically examining the world around us and understanding that it is constantly changing and developing.  This topic explores big questions about why the world is unevenly developed and questions whether the development gap will close.  An in-depth look at Zambia allows pupils to put into context the impacts of colonisation, aid and debt, top-down and bottom – up development schemes.

Distinctive Landscapes

Building on coastal and river knowledge from KS3 pupils examine why the landscape of the UK varies greatly and develop their map skills as a means of communicating this information.  An in-depth look at the Jurassic Coast and the River Tees allows students to consolidate their knowledge of geomorphic processes and how humans can influence and change their landscape.  We aim to install a sense of responsibility and understanding of the impact human interaction can have on the environment.

Fieldwork and Geographical Exploration

Pupils engage in hands on experience of planning and carrying out two different fieldwork tasks.

Pupils work to evaluate what the impact of these regeneration has been and will be of residents and visitors to Elephant and Castle.

Secondly, To evaluate what the impact of geomorphic processes at Thorpe Bay. What are the impacts to residents who live in the area? Impacts to the wider area/UK?

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Global Hazards

To build on skills from KS3, we examine how hazards occur and the different scales that they occur on. We look at the  processes involved in these events and evaluate the impact on humans and our responses to these disasters .  This unit develops student’s curiosity about the power and wonder of nature.

There is further exploration of the themes of Impact and inequality by examining the impact of these changes on landscapes and people. Looking at case studies develops an understanding that the response to these events is not equal and strongly linked to development.

Sustaining Ecosystems

This unit allows pupils the opportunity to further increase their knowledge of the Tropical Rainforest and Tundra with an examination of the damage being inflicted on these areas.  We explore the reasons humans involved in these changes and evaluate the impact of humans on these ecosystems. This encourages students to examine and evaluate sustainable methods that can be used to manage our impact on the planet.

We debate the use of biomes and install a sense of responsibility and understanding of the impact human interaction can have with the environment.

Climate Change

Our final topic encourages students to become ambassadors of the earth and to examine the role that they play in global climate change.

We look at how and why climate change has occurred, both naturally and human caused.  We explore impact of changing climates around the world and how this could lead to further inequalities

Resource Reliance

This unit starts to intertwine all the pupils’ prior knowledge of development, change and inequality.  We look at how resources are unevenly distributed around the world and examine the contrasting theories in how to deal with these shortages.

An in-depth look at Tanzania allows pupils  to understand the how the uneven distribution of resources has an impact on different people and can further create inequality.  We evaluate and assess schemes that be developed to tackle resource shortages.

Revision

 A mixture of teacher led and independent revision materials to allow students to identify their areas of strengths and weaknesses.  We also look at how the course can be applied to geographic exploration (paper 3) and decision making skills.