INTENT
Our intent for the curriculum is to underline and promote the vitally important role that Geography plays in understanding how the world works in an increasingly globalised society and economy. Geography at St. Edward’s is a springboard not just towards further study at GCSE level but also to aid our pupils in their journey to becoming well-rounded adults who can contribute positively in their local and global community. Knowledge, understanding, application and key geographical skills are at the core of our curriculum. Pupils develop a knowledge and respectful understanding of places including their national, international or global context. The study of human and physical features ensures that pupils understand the process of change and development within the world, and develop the sense of awe and wonder. Our curriculum will both reflect and learn from the diversity of our local community and across the world, whilst also helping to enhance our pupils’ cultural capital through the extensive range of topics and themes it will cover. Our range of field trips in years 6, 7 and 8 will also add cultural capital, understanding, knowledge and key skills which can be applied to future learning and beyond.
CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
In Key Stage 2 students will learn about the basic of Geography, understanding the key concepts of place, location and key skills e.g. map reading and interpretation. They then study location in more detail – continents, countries and the British Isles. There is then a focus on human and physical features of Iceland, with a focus on volcanoes and their impacts. Rivers follows this, studying the interactions between a -physical feature and how humans use resources. At the end of year 5, a case study of Brazil enables students to see different physical and human features of a country on a different continent.
In year 6, students build upon the key concepts and basic skills from year 5. They begin with a topic on Water – it’s formation, uses and interactions between human and physical geography. This cumulates in a field trip to a local reservoir, to put their understanding into practise. The focus then switches to our island home, studying the key human and physical features of the United Kingdom. A topic on deserts follows, allowing students to investigate the different ways that people and animals have adapted to a specific region of the Earth. Further regions are then studied e.g. mountains and polar regions, again to show how the different areas of the Earth vary and what that means for the people and the environment. At the end of Year 6, the final topic is chocolate with a study of where it is made, how people live and work in different areas of the world and an emphasis on key skills of data collection and interpretation.
In Key Stage 3, each topic probes further into the relationship between humans and the environments in which they live. Pupils examine and investigate the impacts that local, national and global processes have on both human geography and physical geography. The links between social, economic and environmental impacts of both human activity and physical processes are studied. In year 7, the topics studied are Weather and Climate, Globalisation, Africa – with a focus on Kenya, natural hazards and it ends with a local area study of Ashbourne and Dovedale, including a field trip, where pupils take their classroom learning to two different locations and employ key geographical skills; map reading, field sketches, data collection and interpretation.
In year 8, the topics are Coasts, Russia, Liverpool, population and Sustainable Futures. This continues to build upon the cultural capital by allowing pupils the chance to see human and physical processes in different parts of the world, both nationally and internationally. The human and physical processes, and their social, economic and environmental impacts are also studied in further depth, whilst continuing to build upon the aforementioned key skills.
In year 8, the pupils attend two field trips (in conjunction with the History department), one to Salford Quays in Manchester and a second to Albert Dock in Liverpool. The aim is to understand how these areas have changed over the years, their current uses and to know why they continue to evolve. A focus remains on key field work skills on each trip – data collection and interpretation, map reading and land use.
LEARNING JOURNEYS
ASSESSMENT
In Geography, each topic has an assessment at the end to show understanding. This can be in a variety of forms – data interpretation, information analysis, written questions, exam style questions, map reading and map skills, reading comprehension and vocabulary testing, extended writing, enquiry-based writing and questions.
In addition to this, we do frequent low-stakes retrieval practice as part of in-class learning. This can be via whole class discussion, pairs and group work, targeted questioning, whole-class questioning.
CULTURAL CAPITAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Year 6 field trip to Carsington Water.
Year 6 chocolate tasting.
Year 7 field trip to Ashbourne and Dovedale.
Year 8 field trip to Salford Quays, Manchester.
Year 8 field trip to Albert Docks, Liverpool.
Inter-school geography quiz team.