Geography
Back to Subjects MenuWhat is the Intent of the Geography Curriculum?
The intent of our Geography curriculum is to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to allow them to understand the key human and physical processes that shape the world we live in. We want our students to be able to visit a new place and understand through geographical theory why it looks the way it does. For example, why the beach builds up on one side of a groyne; why McDonalds lorries use Biofuel; why cities have higher diversity than the country side.
The curriculum covers a wide range of topics that are equally balanced between human and physical geography. We learn about these processes at a range of scales, and in different places across the globe. Through studying a range of different case studies aim to develop a sense of global responsibility and empathy within our students to people living on the other side of the world to us. We want our students to become global citizens, aware of how their actions could influence a person they will never meet.
Our KS3 curriculum is taught holistically through topics focusing on certain areas of the world. Through learning basic geographical skills such as describing locations, data and analysing maps, students are provided with the geographical knowledge needed to help them understand how humans and the physical world interact. The topics are ordered so students build on these basic skills and develop a more complex understanding of geographical processes such as coasts, rivers, or migration, as well as learning how the world has become more interconnected. For example, students learn about the human and physical geographies of the UK and Europe, with a focus on learning key map skills. They then build upon these skills in succeeding topics, such as when we study Brazil and South America. They are exposed to a range of different maps of different places and localities, developing their geographic knowledge of places while learning how more complex processes of GIS can show migration and population density patterns.
Our KS4 curriculum follows the AQA GCSE specification, where students continue to work on the skills and content, they have learnt in KS3. We study an even spread of human and physical geography, with exciting and relevant case studies taught throughout. Our student’s geographical knowledge is then stretched further if they choose to continue with our curriculum in KS5. A lot of the topics we cover are familiar from KS4, but we also introduce our students to new topics such as geopolitics. A Level Geography has many transferrable skills, making it a very strong subject for our students no matter what they decide to continue studying.
