Geography
The Geography department endeavours to provide a broad understanding of the fundamental concepts and skills underpinning the vast discipline of Geography in order to develop inquisitive young people who can understand and ask questions about our human and physical environment. We want to develop global, informed citizens who know about our world and the issues facing it; those who understand these complex issues and can form their own opinions on them. We believe a key part of Geography is enquiry-based learning (including fieldwork) and so aim to include this throughout the three Key Stages. We want to develop our students to feel confident as Geographers and have a ‘growth mindset’.
Our aim is that if students never take the subject beyond Key Stage 3, they will still have the geographical skills and understanding to be informed citizens and will be able to use the transferable skills they have learnt in other subjects.
Key Stage 3
Does the Geography Department follow the National Curriculum? |
No |
The Geography department largely follows the National Curriculum, with some exceptions, and considers the following knowledge and concepts to be imperative to all students:
- An understanding of how humans and the environment interact, with both positive and negative effects (including climate change).
- An awareness of places both nationally and internationally.
- An awareness of some of the key sources of debate in our lives today including migration and energy.
- A knowledge of the local area of Cumbria and the types of human and physical processes that occur.
- An understanding of how human populations change over time depending on a number of factors.
- The knowledge of both the physical and human systems that affect our world.
Students will also develop their skills in the following areas:
- The use of different types of maps including atlas and OS maps.
- The use of GIS.
- The use of graphs.
- Photo interpretation.
- Numeracy.
- Exam-based skills including those related to revision.
- How to carry out fieldwork/geographical enquiry.
- Reading to extract meaning.
These key areas of knowledge, concepts and skills reoccur throughout the Key Stage 3 curriculum in a range of topics such as What is our world made of?, How do places change?, How do landscapes change?, and Is our energy sustainable? This allows knowledge and skills to be developed over time and a more detailed understanding to be gained.
Key Stage 4
GCSE Geography is a preference subject and Key Stage 4 students follow the OCR Geography A: Geographical Themes specification.
The first year of the course focuses on the geography of the UK and learning enquiry (fieldwork) skills. Students cover three key topics: Physical landscapes of the UK , People of the UK and Environmental Challenges for the UK . There are also two full days of fieldwork and an additional half-day for reviewing these skills.
The second year of the course moves away from the UK and looks at the world around us. Students cover ecosystems of the planet , people of the planet and environmental threats to our planet.
Further information about the GCSE Geography specification can be found using the following link:
GCSE - Geography A (Geographical Themes) (9-1) - J383 (from 2016) - OCR
Key Stage 5
Students who opt to take A Level Geography at Key Stage 5 follow the OCR A Level Geography specification. Students take the full A Level qualification with terminal exams at the end of Year 13.
The Year 12 course includes: Landscape systems, which includes a day’s fieldwork currently visiting Easedale Tarn; Earth’s life support systems, which includes a day’s fieldwork currently to Buttermere; Change Spaces; Making Places (there are two fieldwork days as part of this topic); Trade in the contemporary world and Powers and Borders. After Christmas in Year 12, students will start working on their independent investigation which is a piece of Non-Examined Assessment worth 20% of their final grade.
In Year 13, students study two topics in great detail: Exploring Oceans and Disease Dilemma, as well as completing their independent investigation. By the end of the course they develop a range of geographical skills, both practical and theoretical, that can take them onto the next stage of their education, training or employment.
Further information about the A Level Geography specification can be found using the following link: