Key Stage 3

Our Key Stage 3 curriculum

Key stage 3 geography will introduce you to physical & human systems that will help you understand the world as it is today. There are many difficult global issues to tackle in the 21st century and geography is right at the heart of them. The course aims to develop the identification, description and explanation of spatial patterns and to provide basic knowledge of the physical features and human geography of the world today. Study of the changes in global patterns provides an understanding of physical & human systems critical for achieving sustainability, highlights inequality within and between countries and the different remedial strategies, and develops an appreciation of the dynamism of the natural world.

Year 7

In the autumn term students will study the basic structure of the Earth, plate tectonics and geological time. Latitude and longitude and map skills are also taught in the first term. Towards the end of the autumn term and in spring the course moves on to the study of population, beginning with anthropologists' theories of human origins and migration out of Africa, considering the explosive population growth of the twentieth century in the context of the Demographic Transition Model and the issues of overpopulation, ageing population structures and migration. In the second half of the spring term the course switches back to physical geography, studying weather and climate, the basic Tricellular Global Climate Model and the connection to global scale soils & ecosystems. The year 7 course rounds off with a synoptic study of China considering its basic physical and human geography in the context of the topics covered over the course of the year.

Year 8

Year 8 begins with a study of development, including different ways of measuring development, the changing pattern of development over time, the rapid economic growth of the twentieth century and the inequalities within and between countries that have resulted. In the spring term climate change is the first topic to be studied, looking first at natural causes of climate change driving ice ages, glacials & changes over the last millennium, then the natural greenhouse effect and human contribution to it before moving on the consider the impacts of predicted climate change and possible measures mitigate the changes and adapt to changes. The Earth is now an urban world with the majority of the population living in towns and cities. The urbanisation unit considers the historical growth of urban areas, how cities are structured and the advantages and disadvantages of living in cities. The final unit of the spring term studies glaciers, considering how they have shaped the landscape of the UK. The year 8 course ends with a synoptic study of the Middle East, considering its basic physical and human geography in the context of the topics covered over the year and introducing the political geography of national boundaries and state formation.