Year 10 on a field trip at St. Bee’s, investigating longshore drift
Year 7’s and 8’s completing their poster for the RGS competition about remapping their life after COVID-19
Year 7’s completing a litter enquiry around The Whitehaven Academy.
Why study Geography?
Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.
Key Stage 3
Our overarching aim when teaching Geography is also to foster a love for and enjoyment of the subject. The Geography curriculum intends to build in skills required to be successful in Geography now and in the future, as well as contextual knowledge relevant to students’ future study of the subject, whilst engaging and enthusing students with Geography that is most relevant to them and their lives. We therefore aim to develop students’ reading comprehension and written accuracy, as well as developing locational knowledge, place knowledge, knowledge of human and physical geography, geographical skills (such as map skills, graph skills, GIS and data analysis) and fieldwork, thus enabling them to communicate their thoughts accurately and effectively.
Topics covered:
Year 7: Being a Great Geographer, Marvellous Map Skills, Raging Rivers, Super Rocks and Soils, Amazing Africa (Kenya) and Glorious Glaciers.
Year 8: Popping Population, Wicked Weather, Unreal Urbanisation, Energy and Climate Change, Astonishing Asia (China) and Crazy Coasts.
Year 9: International Development, Tremendous Tectonics, Making Money, Amazing Places (India, Middle East, Russia), Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management.
KS4
GCSE
Key Information about the course
Component 1: The Physical Environment (coastal landscapes and processes, glaciated landscapes and processes, weather hazards and climate change, ecosystems, biodiversity and management).
In this component you will learn about what is around you, how it was formed and how processes worked together to create landscapes. In addition, you will study aspects of climate and weather and learn how they affect the lives of millions of people daily.
Component 2: The Human Environment (changing cities, global development, resource management and energy resource management).
In this component you will learn about how man interacts with both other humans and physical barriers in order to live where different processes and cultures are at work. You will study some challenging concepts, which at times will be testing, but after this you will have a balanced view of the world around you and how you fit into it and how your future looks in the years ahead.
Component 3: Geographical Investigations (Fieldwork and UK Challenges)
In this component you will be active in the field. You will attend a compulsory four-day and three-night fieldwork element during which you will study in some depth processes and features created by coastal erosion and deposition. You will conduct measurements in the field and collate and write these up in line with the course requirement. During the urban studies element of the fieldwork you will undertake work in a CBD of a local town and calculate how people interact in a town and shopping environment, as well as study how a town changes from its central point to its outer fringes. You will not need any specific equipment as this is provided, however there is a parental cost for the field visit of approximately £50, to help towards transport costs. Currently we use the Field Studies Centre at Castlehead in Grange-over-Sands and are likely to continue doing so. At the centre all equipment and board are provided.
Key areas and skills
Key skills that you will develop will enable you to see things differently, work out why decisions have been made and work out why things are as they are. Your map skills are inherent to this and will be skilled to a higher level and your interpretation skills will be tested at a much higher level. You will analyse data, make calculations, formulate opinions with justified reasoning and use mathematical skill to present findings from appropriate investigations.
Main methods of assessment
This is assessment by written examinations of the three different topics.
Paper 1: The Physical Environment (1 hour 30 minutes)
Paper 2: The Human Environment (1 hour 30 minutes)
Paper 3: Geographical Investigations (1 hour 30 minutes)
Possible career pathway
Cartographer, commercial/residential surveyor, environmental consultant, geographical information systems officer, planning and development survey, primary and secondary school teacher or town planner.
