Geography

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KS3 Curriculum

Our first unit met in year 7 ascertains to what extent students have been taught from the Geography National Curriculum at Key Stage 2. Generally, we find that Geography is not taught as a separate entity in primary schools and students have a somewhat stereotypical view of ‘place’ through Humanities projects as opposed to through a geographical lens. We also find that basic geographical skills can be weak. We therefore spend the first half term of teaching focusing on map skills and their understanding of Geography.

We deliver a two-year KS3 programme of study with three lessons per fortnight, incorporating the requirements of the national curriculum. We have designed our curriculum to explore both the physical and human aspects of geography, whilst examining how society interacts with the natural world. As a result, students begin their GCSE studies with a firm base of geographical knowledge and skills as well as a sense of stewardship and accountability for the communities in which they live.

At the core of our curriculum design is integrating key skills including understanding maps, data interpretation, writing, oracy and numeracy. The first topic in Year 7, Map Skills, helps to secure previous Key Stage 2 learning before beginning to develop their skills and knowledge in our further topics. These include: Migration, Antarctica, the Geography of my Stuff, Coasts and Place.

In Year 8, we continue to build upon previous learned skills and introduce new concepts through our topics: Rainforests, Africa, What on Earth is going on?, Superpowers, Crime and Rivers.

The key concepts that influence our curriculum design at Key Stage 3 curriculum are Sustainability, Physical Process, Human Created Risk, Climate Change and Place and Scale. These are intertwined between each of our topics and develop over time as students move through the topics and year groups. For example in Year 7 pupils will learn about the key physical processes that take place along our coastlines. In Year 8, these processes are compared and contrasted to river processes but also developed to explain how they can change our landscape.

At GCSE students follow the course outlined by Edexcel. Alongside the required content we have developed a scheme of learning offers students an opportunity to learn about the wider world and the impact that the way we live our lives can have global impacts. For example, in the Resource Management topic we look at food miles and ecological footprints and link that back to our previous learning on the enhanced greenhouse effect in the Weather Hazards and Climate Change topic.

Throughout the three years students learn to make synoptic links between the topics and have plenty of opportunities to retrieve past learning through Geog Your Memory tasks, homeworks and check point quizzes as well as formal assessments at the end of each topic.

Both the KS3 and GCSE schemes of work have been created after reflecting upon the A Level Content Advisory Board which sets out what all students should know by the time they complete their A Level Geography studies. Although not all of our students will continue to study the subject to this level they are taught the skills and concepts that would allow them to access this and set them up for success.

All students at both key stages have regular assessments of their knowledge and skills. This information is used to inform planning and intervention where necessary. At KS3 all assessed work takes place in booklets and tests, whilst at KS4 end-of-unit tests, mocks, intervention work and feedback are stored in assessment folders within the department. It is the geography curriculum area policy to provide feedback to students on their assessments and formal tests, however, classwork and homework will not routinely be teacher assessed.

At KS3 students will be given approximately two homework tasks per half term. At KS4 this frequency increases to approximately once a week. Homework will often be peer or self-assessed in class, and pupils will receive verbal feedback on their homework where appropriate.

As a department we value continual professional development and regularly take the opportunity to train future teachers. We also take pride in honing our own practice and sharing new ideas.

We are a collaborative department and make use of resources like Teams and SharePoint to share resources. Department meetings are also a good opportunity for us feedback to each other and share good practice.

A focus for us this year has been to help students become more independent in their approach to revision and we have trialled a number of approaches including using Carousel Learning and creating our own revision site. This has been successful with students and shared with all staff as an example of good practice.

Our curriculum is strengthened by offering a range of enrichment opportunities. All students are involved in experiencing fieldwork techniques outside of the classroom, competitions, and participation in our annual ‘Cultural Day’. Our geography podcast group is open to all KS4 students.

It is often said that there is no such thing as a geography job – rather there are a multitude of jobs that geographers can do. The nature of working lives is changing, it is less likely that you will spend all of your working life in one organisation or even sector. Geography sets you up for this future by providing you with a wide range of transferable skills such as being a good communicator, having strong presentation skills, competent using ICT, being able to conduct research, working effectively in a team and using a variety of sources to produce work of high written quality.

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KS4 Curriculum

Geography is a humanities option subject, and students must choose to study either geography or history GCSE. A growing number of academic students are opting to study both subjects at GCSE.

The course will help students to:

• develop a knowledge and understanding of current events from the local to the global area;
• investigate the Earth and its peoples;
• study the features of the Earth, mountains, rivers and seas and how they are formed;
• understand other cultures in the UK and across the world;
• develop a range of skills which include map reading, GIS, data collection, ICT and problem solving;
• collect data in the field, and analyse and present their findings.

In line with all subjects, Geography assessment is linear to ensure that all GSCE examinations are taken at the end of the course in the summer of Year 11. Three exams are taken:

Unit 1: The Physical Environment       

Worth 37. 5% of the GCSE (one 90 minute exam)

The changing landscapes of the UK (including geology, rivers and coasts)
Weather hazards and climate change (including hurricanes and drought)
Ecosystems, biodiversity and management (including tropical rainforests and deciduous woodlands)

Unit 2: The Human Environment          

Worth 37.5% of the GCSE (one 90 minute exam)

Changing cities (including two major city case studies – Manchester and Mexico City)
Global development (including one major country case study - India)
Resource management (energy)

Unit 3: Geographical Investigations    

Worth 25% of the GCSE (one 90 minute exam)

NB: replaces the older-style controlled assessment

Investigating physical environments – river/coastal landscapes
Investigating human environments – changing rural environments
UK Challenges – resource consumption, sustainability, population, economics, landscape and climate change

For more details on the Edexcel Geography “A” GCSE we offer including specification (knowledge and skills needed) and final assessment details, please use the link below.

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/geography-a-2016.html

The departmental KS4 curriculum plan can be found via the link below. They set out the order of each unit of work.  Formal assessments take place at the end of each unit of work, and if students fall too far below their individual target grade this will trigger automatic intervention assistance.

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4. Results

The geography curriculum area has a consistently strong academic track record. In 2023, 76.2% of all students achieved a standard grade 4 pass or above, 30.2% gained the top 7-9 grades.

Student voice surveys provide on-going evidence of the quality of teaching and learning in the curriculum area, with students enjoying their lessons, feeling supported by their teachers and relishing the variety of activities they undertake in lessons.

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5. Assessment

All students at both key stages have regular assessments of their knowledge and skills. This information is used to inform planning and intervention where necessary. At KS3 all assessed work takes place in booklets and tests, whilst at KS4 end-of-unit tests, mocks, intervention work and feedback are stored in assessment folders within the department. It is the geography curriculum area policy to provide written feedback to students on their assessments and formal tests, however, classwork and homework will not routinely be teacher assessed.

At KS3 students will be given approximately two homework tasks per half term. At KS4 this frequency increases to approximately once a week. Homework will often be peer or self-assessed in class, and students will receive verbal feedback on their homework where appropriate.

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6. Enrichment

In Geography “the world is your classroom”, and the department usually runs several enrichment trips alongside the compulsory academic field trips.

 

Cleveleys: GCSE 

All GCSE students must complete two formal pieces of fieldwork. The Physical Geography component is completed in Year 10 as we investigate how the coastal landscapes changes as you move towards the shore line and how it is affected by coastal management.

 

Sorrento residential enrichment trip: for Year 10 

Students will have the chance to see geography in action along the coast; visiting beaches in Sorrento as well as the island of Capri for a spectacular boat trip. They will also have the opportunity to climb Vesuvius, visit Pompei and make their own pizzas!

 

Manchester city centre: GCSE

The second formal piece of GCSE fieldwork is a study of Human Geography in Manchester, where we investigate how the inner city and central business district change along a transect, and whether they match up with theoretical models.

 

Support

All Geography staff make themselves available for 1 : 1 support with homework, exam technique, past paper questions and course content.

 

Revision classes

Students may be specifically requested to attend revision classes if the classroom teacher feels extra intervention is needed. Parents will be informed by letter or telephone if this is the case.

 

Online Revision

There are a vast amount of resources written by the staff available to students via Teams as part of their class groups. There are revision powerpoints, exam technique help, question practice, stretch and challenge resources and revision quizzes. Some starting points are:

BBC Bitesize for Edexcel

Seneca revision animations

Revision World Topics and past papers

Internet Geography How to revise geography

Lots of quick quizzes to test yourself

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7. Textbooks

The set textbook that accompanies the three years of the GCSE course is called “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Geography A: geographical themes and challenges” edited by John Hopkin, published by Pearson, with ISBN 978-1-446-92775-5.

There are less detailed complementary revision guides, also published by Pearson, as follows:

• “Revise Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Geography A: revision guide” (ISBN 978-1-292-13377-5)
• “Revise Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Geography A: revision workbook” (ISBN 978-1-292-13373-7)

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8. Parental Support

 

Year 7

 

Year 8

 

GCSE