Geography

Key Stage 3

Students in KS3 follow a broad curriculum, which ensures that they become Geographers in the making. Students are taught about the Earth’s natural phenomena and how humans interact with them. KS3 follows humankind’s complex relationship with our planet.

In Year 7, Units 1 and 2 establish foundational geographical ideas and skills, for example continents and oceans, describing locations using compass directions, understanding maps at a range of scales, the distinctive physical and human characteristics of the UK, and identifying how there is an uneven distribution of wealth and quality of life across the world. Unit 1 includes a fieldwork project based on students’ personal geographies and helps them to see how geography as a subject can enhance understanding of their own lives, as well as introducing them to fieldwork early on.

Units 3-6 address specific human and physical components of the Earth’s surface and the processes that form it, including trade and resources, biomes, UK landscapes (power of tectonics, ice, and water) and coastal landscapes. Example processes include the water cycle, nutrient cycle, rock cycle, glacial erosion, and continental drift. Students characterise biomes such as tropical rainforests and hot deserts and they explain the importance of trade and resources and understand how this influences settlement. Is important that by the end of Year 7 students have a strong understanding of physical processes, because this enables them to meaningfully understand human interaction with the environment in Year 8.

Students in Year 8 begin to start to look further afield by studying how Brazil is different from the UK. We then begin to see the impacts that people moving has on our world and the causes that are accelerating this global trend. After this, we look to build on our knowledge of the physical world by learning about our coastlines, before examining the ways that humans are interacting with the natural world. We then continue with our global focus by exploring the UK’s changing relationship with Asia. Students end Year 8 by combining their local and global Geography, by assessing the inequalities, not just with the UK, but abroad too.

Year 9 acts as a bridging year for students as they prepare for Key Stage 4. Students develop the skills that they have been taught in Years 7 and 8 through exploring effects and responses to natural hazards, ranging from typhoons to climate change; a variety of global and local ecosystems in the living world; and the changing economic world. In this unit, students explore how the development gap is changing and what countries are doing to try and develop.

Key Stage 4

Students follow a linear course in Geography (meaning they sit all exams at the end of the course). There are three assessed units within the course with geographical skills embedded in all of the units:

Living with the physical environment (35% of final grade)

● 3.1.1 Section A: The challenge of natural hazards

● 3.1.2 Section B: The living world

● 3.1.3 Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK

Challenges in the human environment (35% of final grade)

● 3.2.1 Section A: Urban issues and challenges

● 3.2.2 Section B: The changing economic world

● 3.2.3 Section C: The challenge of resource management

Geographical applications (30% of final grade)

● 3.3.1 Section A: Issue evaluation

● 3.3.2 Section B: Fieldwork

Geographical skills

● 3.4 Geographical skills

This exciting course is based on a balanced framework of physical and human Geography. It allows students to investigate the link between the two themes, and approach and examine the battles between the human and natural worlds. Students who complete the course will have the skills and experience to progress onto A Level and beyond, as well as opening the door to many fascinating careers.

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