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Geography

A1   Geog dept. curriculum snakeGeography A level curriculum snake

Vision:

 

The Geography Department at Fakenham Academy’s vision is to enable students to understand their place in the world as global citizens. We wish to instil a fascination and respect for the natural world whilst also equipping students with knowledge and understanding of diverse human and physical patterns and processes including the impact change has upon them. Our teaching aims to develop the understanding amongst students that they are custodians of the planet for themselves and future generations and that, no matter how small their actions, they can make a difference to the sustainable future of the natural and human world.

This vision is achieved by building on the geography students have experienced at Key Stage 2. Year 7 introduces the basic concepts and threads that are necessary to understand in order to build knowledge, understanding, empathy and to make decisions and enquire about all aspects of both human and physical geography. Throughout the remainder of Key Stage 3 and into Key Stage 4 and A level knowledge, skills and enquiry are revisited. Students also experience and practise a variety of geographical, cartographical, literacy-based, mathematical and problem solving skills. Progression in collecting, presenting and interpreting a variety of sources of information, presented in different ways, and working outside the classroom and within the local community completes the geographical experience.



 

Yearly Intent Statements

 

What are the aims of specific stages of the curriculum?

 

Year 7: By the end of the year… 

 

Students will be able to identify continents and have an understanding of latitude and longitude. They will be familiar with geological time, understand the origins of the world, the development and formation of continents and tectonic plate movement and the effects of volcanic and seismic activity. Students will understand the concept of Place and the nature of the UK and Norfolk as well as recognising the difference between rural and urban areas and settlement sizes and sustainability challenges within each of them. They will be able to use OS maps, dealing with grid references, scale and symbols and examine how geographical models can be applied to look at and predict patterns. Students will also examine the links between the water and the rock cycle and will identify the physical processes and landforms that result from erosion, weathering, transportation and deposition. They will begin to explain a sequence of landscape formation and have an overview of the continent of Asia and an introduction to Africa.

 

Year 8: By the end of the year… 

 

Students will be familiar with small scale factors influencing weather and microclimates and will be able to explain the reasons for and the variations within the climate of the UK using a variety of mapping methods. They will be able to begin to plan, execute and write up a geographical enquiry. Students will be able to interpret and explain population pyramids and recognise that global population increase impacts on the future sustainability of the planet, especially in terms of the increased use of resources for an increasingly wealthy world. Students will understand that the future planning for energy resources are critical. They will have a broad knowledge of the physical geography of the Middle East and examine some of the conflicts which the region experiences. Students will understand the nature of and the threats to the contrasting environments of tropical rainforest and Antarctica.

 

Year 9: By the end of the year… 

 

Students will be able to explain the reasons for global climate differences and understand the impacts of climate change on people and places. They will understand that nations need to work together to mitigate against the effects of climate change and to plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Students will revisit the topic of Africa and recognise that the concept of development is complex and that globalisation has both positive and negative effects. Physical geographical processes of erosion, transportation and deposition will be addressed in the topics of rivers and coasts and students will be able to describe a sequence of change, name physical geographical features and identify them using maps and photographs and study processes using graphical data. 


 

Year 10: By the end of the year…  

 

Students will recognise and describe the processes and patterns that occur within natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and flooding. They will have a good understanding of the local, national and global scale of hazards and be able to contrast the responses in LICs and HICs and explain ways in which local, national and international bodies may plan for the future. Students will also have a deeper understanding of the concept of both natural and human induced climate change and the global response to it. The uneven distribution of resources will be familiar and students will be able to find problems and solutions within the context of water resources across a variety of scales. Students will have a broad overview of the physical landscape found in the UK and will be able to use a variety of graphical, photographic, mathematical and theoretical information to identify patterns and processes involved in the development and management of rivers and coasts. Students will understand the changing pattern of urban population globally and in the UK and the issues these changes cause. They will have an in-depth understanding of these challenges and the solutions to them in Rio de Janeiro and Bristol.

 

Year 11: By the end of the year… 

 

Students will be able to plan, carry out, analyse and evaluate a geographical enquiry using technical equipment and fieldwork design. They will also be able to critically analyse methods of collecting data to answer geographical questions. They will have developed an in-depth understanding of global inequality and the importance of globalisation, with reference to Nigeria. Students will also be able to explain the distribution of global biomes and recognise the characteristics of tropical rainforests and cold environments with particular reference to Svalbard. They will have a knowledge and understanding of the issue and challenges of living in these environments and managing them sustainably. Students will also have had the opportunity to study a geographical issue in depth and apply their broad knowledge and understanding, along with unseen data, to suggest solutions to this issue. 


 

Year 12: By the end of the year…

 

Students will have an in-depth understanding of the broad issues facing urban areas across the globe, with particular reference to Beijing, Mumbai and the UK. They will understand the story behind the development of major cities and will be able to relate this to issues arising today. Students will focus on the social, cultural, environmental and economic issues of sustainability with reference to urban microclimates, waste management and sustainable urban drainage systems. The concept of Place will be much more familiar to students, allowing for a depth of understanding that Place influences and is influenced by human behaviour and meaning. Stratford, London and Sheringham, Norfolk will be very familiar to students and they will be able to examine and understand the changes that have and are occurring in these places and relate these changes to the live experience of the population. Students will begin to research and background read to plan for their Non Exam Assessment and will design and carry out two days worth of fieldwork in order to answer their NEA hypothesis. Students will also have an in-depth understanding of coastal patterns and processes and will be able to explain and plan for coastal protection and change with the use of theoretical models. The planning for and mitigation against future change will also be familiar to students in terms of natural hazards. They will be confident in using and writing a critique of geographical models and will be developing their ability to apply background a wider reading to broad concepts.

 

Year 13: By the end of the year…

 

Students will have completed their NEA, learning the skills of in depth and detailed data analysis and evaluation. They will have a detailed knowledge and understanding of the role of water and carbon cycle and the complex issue of globalisation. They will develop opinions, based upon their previous learning and background reading which they will be able to apply to a variety of situations and seen and unseen data. They will have researched, planned and written a 4000 word independent geographical enquiry.

 

Rationale behind sequencing:

 

Year 7

 

The Year 7 topics are designed to provide a basic background to geography and to build upon geography learnt at KS2

Four basic aspects of geography are studied in order to give students the foundation for broader and more challenging concepts in their experience at KS3 and above 

It is important that students understand the concept of long periods of time and the fact that physical processes occur over hundreds, thousands and even millions of years ( golden thread). This concept is important when studying processes such as those that occur on the coast or in rivers which is addressed in Year 9 and angina at GCSE and A level and is an issue which we have identified as one which students find challenging. Within this topic Africa and the cradle of early man gives a basis for the Africa topic which is built upon in Year 8.

Students are then able to recognise that humans have had an impact on the world in a very short period of time.

The study of Place (another golden thread) is central to the context of other topics and introducing Norfolk and the UK with the use of OS maps gives students an awareness of their role in shaping geography

Early fieldwork allows the development of a sense of community and encourages the beginnings of empathy and enquiry based learning in their rural area.

Students are introduced to theoretical models which will be readdressed in the following years. The examination of megacities provides a contrasting experience to that which students currently are familiar with and the concept of sustainability (another golden thread), is introduced at this stage in order that it is embedded into learning by the start of Year 8. 

Physical processes are interlinked and the study of the water and rock cycles provides a basis for understanding of the progression of the processes of weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition (also identified as golden threads).


 

Year 8

Topics in Year 8 are designed to apply the knowledge and understanding gained in Year 7

The weather topic introduces the important concept of high and low pressure and allows students to apply their knowledge of the UK to explain differing weather patterns across the country.

Students then are able to use the basic fieldwork experience that they had in Year 7 to design and execute local fieldwork on the school grounds. As they have experienced a year of writing technically about physical geographical phenomena and are used to looking for patterns in data and thinking about models (for example, in the settlement topic), they will be more comfortable with analysing their own fieldwork data. 

The population topic is a golden thread that needs to be studied towards the start of a students secondary geography career and combining it with studying the Middle east and resource exploitation and lack of resources is designed to aid students understanding that resource exploitation, wealth and population increase are closely linked.

Toward the end of the year students have had a large dose of human geography. They therefore end on a very creative topic that looks at the distribution of world biomes and environmental issues (as well as social and economic to some extent) in contrasting ecosystems, one of which is affected by economic development and wealth, linking well to globalisation in Year 9. Antarctica links clearly with climate change, also addressed in year 9. This provided the basis for looking at the reasons for the distribution of biomes which is addressed immediately at the start of Year 9.

 

Year 9

Topics in Year 9 are designed to extend the knowledge, understanding and skills learnt in Years 7 and 8

 

Atmospheric Circulation and resulting hazards is a concept which needs and undatsanifn of weather patterns, pressure and ecosystems, all of which students have studied in Year 8 and they will be ready to study the atmospheric circulation model which is challenging. This is then revised at GCSE.Climate change (another golden thread) is studied in detail as it is increasingly central to understanding in many aspects of geography. Although it will have been discussed in previous years, Year 9 is the year in which lessons are designed to ensure that students have a confident and full knowledge and understanding of global warming and its issues, both environmental, social, economic and political. 

The final golden thread is addressed in this year - that of globalisation- by which time students will have developed a broader and more complex understanding of relationships between countries and continents and will be able to apply this to extend what they have learnt thus far. This is why globalisation is studied later in KS3.

Rivers and coasts are studied in tandem as the concepts often overlap and past experience has shown that studying these together help embed knowledge and understanding in preparation for GCSE. Community links and cultural capital are built during the coasts topic with the study of the protection of the north Norfolk coastline. Ocean pollution at the end of Year 9 is designed to provide interest to those who are not going on to study geography next year as well as those who are, as it is a global issue which will affect students in their immediate and distant future and students can see the relevance to them.


 

Year 10

 

Hazards are studied at the start of the GCSE course. The topic interests students greatly and provides a wide range of visual and numerical simulation. The nature of the topic enables students to begin with a simple theory, cause, effect, response and mitigation method of learning  which eases them gently to the more challenging GCSE. They practise the skills of empathy, immediately have to discuss social, economic and environmental effects and consider scales from local to global, HICs and LICs.

The study of resources then provides contrasting human geography and the study of water resources begins with the UK, drawing on knowledge and understanding learnt in Years 7 and 8 and then broadens again to consider global water resources, using the ideas initially introduced in year 8.

The physical landscapes section is studied next as this prepares students for the enquiry process of fieldwork which is conducted at the end of Year 10 and the beginning of Year 11. Coastal fieldwork draws on the strengths of departmental expertise and the cultural capital and community links addressed at the end of Year 9.

Finally, the Urban world topic provides a contrasting human geography topic and is the first time that students specialise in particularly detailed Case Studies at GCSE: Rios de Janeiro and Bristol. This again, nicely contrasts HICs and LICs.

 

Year 11

 

Fieldwork is completed here as students have developed their skills of analysis and investigation both in geography and in other subjects studied at GCSE. They have the ability to analyse in detail and are more skilled at using analytical, cartographic techniques in their geographical enquiry.

The topic of Economic Activity provides the development and globalisation element, like in KS3, later in the course when students can cope with the challenging element of it. The LIC of Nigeria is concentrated upon, revisiting concepts studied in KS3 Africa and Asia topics. 

The final topic of The Living World addresses rainforests which were first tackled at the end of Year 8 as well as cold environments. These environments pull together ideas about human interaction and challenge in the natural environment, thus finishing students’ GCSE year with the social, economic and environmental impacts of human activity on the natural environment.

Through GCSE students respond to a variety of graphical, pictoral and model-based methods of presenting data which are reviewed when the pre-release material for the Issue Based Evaluation is published

 

Year 12

 

Students begin by studying Contemporary Urban Environments which relies heavily on Case Study from the UK. This allows time to work on and extend written answers and background reading to A level standard without introducing too many new concepts. Once comfortable with the transition from GCSE to A level students study Changing Places which has been endemic throughout geography at KS3 and GCSE but has not been individually studied since Year 7. This topic is timed to be studied alongside the study of north Norfolk coastal erosion and protection with a particular reference to Sheringham. Students deepen their enquiry based skills by studying the changing sense of place in Sheringham.

Physical topics work alongside humans at A level and students begin with a topic they know: coasts, albeit in much more depth. Students can then spend time learning the level of scientific knowledge and mathematical skills necessary to study physical geography at a level. 

Students then begin to plan their NEA. They can use their experience of fieldwork in February and then plan for data collection in June when the second two days of fieldwork take place, Planned for good weather and the ability for students to investigate tourist-related data if they wish to.

The Hazards topic can be taught by two staff alongside each other if necessary, making it the ideal to complete at the end of Year 12.

 

Year 13

 

The most challenging topics of Globalisation and Water and Carbon cycles are studied in year 13 when students have an in-depth understanding and have perfected their skills of analysis and are comfortable with being presented with complex data. The concepts presented in these two topics enable students to analyse and answer high level questions in the way that is expected of a competent and critical A level geographer.

 

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