Geography
We believe that students deserve a broad, progressive and ambitious Geography curriculum, rich in knowledge and skills. Which stimulates curiosity and a wonder of their world and prepares them well for future learning or employment. Our Geography curriculum will give students the following opportunities:
Skills and knowledge
- develop an understanding of physical and human environments and processes;
- develop an understanding of the diverse character of places and landscapes;
- develop an understanding of interactions and interrelationships on the Earth’s surface;
- demonstrate knowledge of locations, places, processes, environments and different scales;
- given access to a range of Geographical concepts within context that can be understood at various levels of sophistication. Understanding concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes; the interrelationships between places, environments and processes;
- apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues to make judgements, this allows students to show breath of understanding and evaluate appreciation of the interrelationships between different aspects of geographical study;
- develop and demonstrate a range of geographical skills, including cartographic, graphical, numerical and statistical;
- use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view analyse and interpret places and data;
- complete programmes of fieldwork; enquiries which include the use of primary data taking place outside the classroom and school grounds;
- develop a rich and deep subject knowledge, SoW’s cover a sequence of topics over the course, which stimulates interest as well as extends their knowledge understanding and skills;
- The curriculum has the ability to be paused at KS3 to reflect real time examples relevant to that topic;
- The curriculum keeps pace with current examples and case studies to reflect the students time of learning.
| Pedagogy | Enrichment | Other general principles |
| Our pedagogy is underpinned by: the regular use of live modelling and exemplar texts to demonstrate processes, standards and expectations a range of strategies to deepen knowledge so that it is committed to long term memory e.g. retrieval Marking and targeted feedback that informs planning and addresses misconceptions e.g. demonstrate and connect Trust wide assessments and timely intervention. Using errors as a learning opportunity and building resilience. | We will enrich our curriculum by: providing fieldwork opportunities both on and off-site. encouraging students to contribute to the life of the school and the community, and use these ‘real’ contexts to develop their skills and knowledge in Geography establishing cross-curricular links Opportunity to visit the Dallowgill site to participate in fieldwork or revision enrichment developing partnerships with external providers that extend children’s opportunities for learning. E.g. MAT activities | Our curriculum will enable students to: learn within a coherent and progressive framework – progression through the course shows a reasonable match between the demand of the curriculum and the capabilities of students develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts to foster enjoyment build on their understanding of the importance of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance and respect improve their spiritual, social, moral and cultural understanding of the world |
Key Stage 3
At Key Stage 3 students study Geography for two lessons per week. We explore 6 units within the year with each taking approximately half a term. The units cover a range of physical and human aspects of Geography and how contemporary events influence and are influenced by them. Throughout each unit, across all three years at KS3 (Y7-9) skills are learned and re-visited to ensure that pupils have both knowledge and skills needed to progress to GCSE Geography if that is a route they wish to explore. The full scheme of learning is available.
Key Stage 4
At Key Stage 4 students have three Geography lessons a week. Geography is a popular option at Key Stage 4 as part of the EBACC suite of subjects. We follow the AQA GCSE syllabus, with units covering both physical and human Geography, exploring contemporary examples and case studies to support their learning, along with specific work to develop geographical and cartographic skills. Fieldwork is undertaken with a visit to Hornsea to explore both human and physical aspects of Geography within the small seaside town.
AQA Subject Specification
The GCSE content is split into four units:
3.1 Living with the physical environment – examined in Paper 1
3.2 Challenges in the human environment – examined in Paper 2
3.3 Geographical applications – examined in Paper 3
3.4 Geographical skills – examined in questions across all 3 exam papers.
In units 3.1 and 3.2 the content is split into sections, with each section focusing on a particular geographical theme. Unit 3.3 sets out the requirements for fieldwork and issue evaluation. Unit 3.4 sets out the geographical skills that students are required to develop and demonstrate.
3.1 Living with the physical environment
3.1.1 – Section A: The challenge of natural hazards (Tectonic and Weather Hazards)
3.1.2 – Section B: The living world (Ecosystems; local and global scale, Cold Environments)
3.1.3 – Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK (Coastal and River landscapes)
3.2 Challenges in the human environment
3.2.1 – Section A: Urban issues and challenges (UK and Global examples – London & Lagos or Mumbai)
3.2.2 – Section B: The changing economic world (UK and Global examples – Nigeria)
3.2.3 – Section C: The challenge of resource management (Focus on Energy)
3.3 Geographical applications
3.3.1 – Section A: Issue evaluation (A pre-release paper given to students 12 weeks prior to their exam)
3.3.2 – Section B: Fieldwork (Based on our Hornsea visit.)
3.4 Geographical skills
3.4 – Throughout the course students develop the skills learned during KS3 to explore maps, photographs, diagrams and data, learn to manipulate information and draw conclusions from the data they are given.
Meet The Team:
Mrs Mayoh – Head of Department
Mrs Mayoh has been teaching at Melior since 2007 – Her favourite part of the subject is Physical geography, especially coasts and tectonics. She loves exploring different places in the UK with her family.
Mrs Hopwood – Teacher of Geography
Ms Richardson – Teacher of Geography