Subject Introduction

At Cressex, we want all our students to have an understanding and appreciation of the world around them. The geography curriculum aims to enhance student knowledge of global locations, build upon their understanding of place and sense of personal identity whilst making them curious about the world in which they live. Students will look at issues of the past, present and future, using case study exemplars to apply theories and concepts to real life situations. Students will study a broad range of physical and human geography topics, enabling them to understand the interactions between humans and the living world. Students are invited to attend a range of trips and fieldwork events to further enhance their understanding and application of the subject throughout both KS3 and KS4. The transferable skills learnt in geography enable students to consider questions about people, society, the environment and the planet. These qualities will aid success in any walk of life chosen after students leave Cressex

Key Stage 3 Information

Year 7

In KS3 we build upon the knowledge that students have gained at primary school. The initial aim of year 7 geography is to build on students understanding of location and their sense of place. The first topic which Y7 students’ study is ‘Place & Space’ which includes fundamental Geographic skills. This ensures that all students’, no matter which primary school they have attended, all acquire the same base level skill and locational understanding to be successful across the entire KS3 curriculum. Following from this we study a unit on ‘Ecosystems’. Students today are often disconnected from nature, so one of the key aims to this topic is try build this connection and bring to attention to issues that ecosystems face. Throughout the remainder of year 7, students look at ‘Settlements’ and a synoptic unit called ‘Africa IS NOT A COUNTRY’ that addresses common misconceptions and acts as a summative topic which incorporates learning and sills from all the previous topics. In all these units, students being looking at the local area and then build to national and international scale. The synoptic unit allows students to apply knowledge to a specific locational example.

Year 8

In Y8 students build on their learning from Y7 and look in greater depth at different human and physical processes. They begin by studying ‘Development & Globalisation’, where they will understand the different ways of measuring development and learn about what effective development looks like.

They also look at ‘Resource Management’ where they discover the relationship between development and resources. Students’ will discover how resources can be weaponised by looking at contemporary case studies. Students then apply this understanding to another unit of work on ‘Tectonics’, a summative topic that aims to bring to light the interconnections between the human and physical worlds.

Key Stage 4 Information

At KS4 students follow the AQA GCSE geography specification. They will sit three exam papers at the end of year 11. We break up the units and re-order them into a logical sequence. We have identified the core themes that run through the course and made sure that they are covered early, and are developed effectively, using the different learning experiences to build up comprehension of these core themes. To have a chance at doing well in their Paper 3 examination students will be required to go on two trips with a total cost of approximately £50.

Year 9

In Y9 students will begin by looking at the natural inequality in the global distribution of resources. Following this they will learn about the impact this has on development and then continue learning about resource management through the lens of development. This will then be applied to deforestation in tropical rainforests and other strategies in hot deserts as a tool for reducing a country’s development. Students will have the opportunity to enquire and research the impact strategies like this will have on people, the economy, and the planet. Students will then learn about climate change and create links between all they have studied, and what they are about to study. During this time, students will learn about coasts and then will have a summer field trip to the coast to collect data and learn fieldwork skills which are needed for their Paper 3 examination.

Year 10

Year 10 students will remind themselves of their prior learning before compounding that learning by looking in detail at one of the global impacts of climate change – changes in weather patterns. Again, building on and linking to their learning on coastal defence, development, and ecosystem vulnerability. Students will understand why people are often forced out of their homes and required to migrate, leading to our topic on urbanisation where students will make comparisons between the human process in NEEs and HICs. Students will then have the opportunity to go and investigate what this change looks like, and how it is managed in a HIC city. This is where they will develop more fundamental skills required to answers questions in their Paper 3 examination. Students will then go on to look at how these changes can transform economies, comparing again the difference between an NEE and a HIC.

Year 11

In Year 11, students will start off with rivers, a purely physical topic which will act as a brilliant way to revise the physical processes they learn about in ‘Coasts’. Depending on progression and availability, students may have the opportunity to go attend an extra field trip to visualise river concepts and see how river issues are being managed. Next, we will do a summative topic which uses all the knowledge from the previous years to more appropriately learn about the physical processes of tectonics and understand how people are affected and how issues like climate change and development can make these issues worse. Similarly, how do these issues effect the response effort. Following this, we will have ample time to revise the variety of topics we have done, and then prepare for the issue evaluation that is released shortly before the exams.

 

Geography Curriculum MAP All Years Sept 25