Geography

Geography is the study of the environment and humans’ interactions with it. Our aim is to enrich students’ knowledge and understanding of the world they live in through allowing students to:

• Explore the complex relationships between the different components and elements that make up our earth.
• To probe the dynamic relationship between the natural and human world.
• To build more socially and environmentally sensitive, and therefore informed and responsible, global citizens.

In Key stage 3, units of work are organised according to themes which enables continuity through the 2 years. The themes are Awe and Wonder, Changing Times, Nature at its best, Let’s explore and Natural Processes.

Students will do this through studying a range of topics which include:

Year 7

Students are introduced to Geography through the topic of Fascinating Places. This topic has been designed to develop the learning that has taken place in key stage 1 and 2 whilst supporting the transition into key stage 3. Students then continue to study both traditional and current geographical topics including Settlement, Earths natural resources, Africa: a continent of contrasts and Water – the study of rivers and coastlines.

Students will complete school based fieldwork where they will explore themes evident in these topics.

Year 8

This year’s study includes Tectonic hazards, Geo politics and Global issues, Weather and Climate, Asia: a continent of contrasts. and Frozen Landscapes.
Again, fieldwork is completed in school on areas related to these topics.

Year 9, 10, 11

Students study AQA A GCSE geography. This is a 3 year course which begins in Year 9. The course has 3 exam papers which are all examined at the end of year 11.
The course is split into three sections; ‘Living with the Physical Environment’, ‘Challenges in the Human Environment’ and ‘Geographical Applications’.

1. The topics included in ‘Living with the Physical Environment’ are Physical Landscapes (Rivers and Coasts), The Living World (Ecosystems, Tropical Rainforests and Deserts) and Natural Hazards (Tectonic Hazards, Weather Hazards and Climate Hazards).
2. The topics included in the ‘Challenges in the Human Environment’ are The Economic World (Nigeria and the UK), Urban Issues and Challenges (Lagos and London) and Resource Management (Focusing on the challenges of water, food and energy resources globally and in the UK).
3. ‘Geographical Applications’ – for this students will complete 2 fieldwork investigations, one for Human Geography and one for Physical Geography. Fieldwork includes walking a transect within Coventry to explore the Quality of Life and Urban Issues and exploring a river profile at Carding Mill Valley.
   Students are also required to examine a pre-release resource booklet and use decision making skills to explore and evaluate this.

Year 12

The current year 12 are studying the OCR A level Geography course. This course is divided into 3 papers.; ‘Physical Systems’, ‘Human Interactions’, ‘Geographical debates’. In year 12 students study Hazardous Earth, Changing Places, and Coasts.  They will also start their 3,000-4,000 word Geographical Fieldwork Investigation.

Year 13

As they progress into Year 13 they will study Earths Life Support Systems, Global Connections (Global migration and Power and Borders) and Climate Change. Students will also be finalising their 3,000 to 4,000 word Geographical Fieldwork Investigation.

Fieldwork is an integral part of our course and opportunities are built in, on differing scales, into each year group. Data presentation of these will also involve GIS which enable students to develop their skills. Numeracy and Graphical skills are also imbedded into each topic.

Almost daily geographical topics are in the news and discussed in the media. We encourage all our students to take an interest in what current geography is happening in the world. A few excellent websites include: the BBC, National Geographic and Global Eye which is specifically geared towards key stage 4 level and is an excellent source for case studies and other detailed information. Frequent geography in the news homework’s are set which encourage students to engage with world affairs and issues that are occurring.