Geography

Intent

As compassionate geographers, we must be aware of how our behaviour impacts the Earth.

In geography, our curriculum has been designed around 3 key aims:

We want students to understand the concept of ‘sustainability’ and how their lives have an impact on the planetary systems through the food they eat, things they buy, the water they consume, the holidays they go on etc. and how this connects them with others, leading to global inequalities.
We want students to develop skills within geography that are transferable across all subjects and employment in later life. With a particular focus on critical thinking and the ability to make and communicate effectively (both written and verbally) a justified judgement.
We want students to have an understanding of the world around them on a range of scales and topics covering both human and physical geography. Topics should be linked to real life concepts and examples and where possible have a local focus.

Implementation

Geography will be a journey that starts in KS3 and evolves through to KS4. We will implement this through the aspiration to deliver high quality education which promotes a love of learning about the world. Work must be accessible and engaging for all learners through means such as differentiation to ensure that true progress is made. Learning is embedded through the development of knowledge and skills over time and the interleaving of ideas and geographical skills. Key concepts and geographical skills will be introduced in Year 7 and revisited with differing levels of support through the student’s geography career at Westleigh.

Human and Physical geography are to be as equally weighted as possible and students are to develop learning from both sciences. This is applied through the Schemes of Learning to provide over time a varied curriculum. Topics timings are often linked to geographical events in the news for example, extreme weather is taught in the Autumn term during the hurricane season. Topics where possible, have a local link for example within Urban we are studying the changes to Westleigh. There are 3 data collections point during the academic year and all assessments are based on the accumulative model.

Impact

Our curriculum will produce inquisitive students who understand their impact on the wider world around them. In geography the curriculum will make a profound, positive impact to the outcomes of every child. We will know that this is true as we are delivering a high standard of education, quality assured through qualitative and quantitate measures such as:

Attainment and Achievement outcomes
Learning walks
Book looks
Student voice
Behaviour data.

Learning Journey

Click to view our KS3 Long Term Plan, Y10 Long Term Plan and Y11 Long Term Plan for Geography

“The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.” - Barack Obama - Former president of the USA