Geography
Curriculum Overview
Intent: why do we teach what we teach?
Geographical thinking provides students with the means to think about the world in new ways. Whilst other disciplines may study landscape, flora and fauna, the atmosphere, people and culture, the built environment and political territories, geography is the only discipline that concerns itself with the relationships between these. Geographical thinking develops spatial differentiation, as students learn about the dynamic social and economic characteristics that create the profile of different places. Students should be exposed to different models, ideas and scenarios, as thinking critically plays a central role in the outcomes of this curriculum.
Geographical enquiry should be at the heart of the curriculum, providing students with the means to think about the world in new ways. Enquiry deepens conceptual understanding through reasoning, data interpretation, argumentation and fieldwork. An enquiry approach helps students to engage with, and make sense of, geographical data, and encourages a questioning approach supported by evidence from the real world. Through geographical enquiry, pupils develop spatial differentiation.
Implementation: how do we teach what we teach?
This course has been designed to develop students’ contextual (locational), propositional (theoretical) and procedural (skills) geographical knowledge so that they may think geographically:
Contextual knowledge i.e. ‘know like a geographer’ through the use of case studies and locational knowledge
Develop knowledge of places at a range of scales
Know a range of contemporary case studies from a variety of contexts, including the UK in the 21st century
Explore similarities and differences between places
Propositional knowledge i.e. ‘understand like a geographer’ through the application of theories and rules
Develop understanding of a range of geographical processes that shape the world
Explore how geographical processes change over space (regional and case study contexts) and time
Explore the interactions within and between the human and physical world
Explore responses to human and physical geographical processes and pressures
Procedural knowledge i.e. ‘explore like a geographer’ using geographical skills*
Develop skills of geographical literacy and numeracy
Use enquiry skills to solve geographical problems
Develop skills in data manipulation to make sense of geographical issues
Develop map skills and become competent in GIS
Impact: how do we know what pupils have learnt and how well they have learnt it?
Each half-term unit will have two clear assessment points identified in the SOW. The first piece will be a shorter written formative assignment mid-way through the scheme of work and the second piece will be a longer summative assessment.
Assessments will mirror GCSE assessment, in terms of command words and the number of marks for particular questions.
Data will be recorded centrally and used to inform review across teaching groups.
