Geography

The intention of our Geography curriculum is:

To inspire in our students a lifelong curiosity and fascination in the world around them.

We use a variety of strategies to support student learning in the classroom. This includes a wide variety of recent case study examples and the opportunity to question, discuss and express learning creatively , verbally through discussion and also by writing at length. We want students to develop their geographical skills within a knowledge-rich curriculum and our lessons are designed to achieve this. We also want students to have fun as they learn!

Our world is constantly changing through physical processes such as coastal erosion, the effects of natural hazards and tectonic activity. At the same time, human activity is changing our environment, impacting natural habitats, climate and urban areas.

Our curriculum is designed to take students from the local to the global and from simple concepts to complex understanding of interdependent factors.

Our Geography curriculum is implemented by:

The delivery of a structured, sequenced and progressive plan.

In Year 7, our Geographers identify the different branches of Geography and explore their own Geographical links through family, friends, holidays, food, music, gaming, social media and more.

Next, we look out to sea and investigate our changing oceans. We explore amazing animal adaptations in different marine environments and look at the impact of plastics and overfishing in our oceans. By the end of this unit students are starting to identify ways in which we can manage our oceans more sustainably.

International development is another key topic in Year 7. We want our students to be able to use up-to-date information about countries to achieve a deeper understanding of levels of development around the world. This is followed by an investigation of the 2008 Boscastle flood. In this investigation students develop and use map skills to identify some of the physical reasons for this dramatic flood event.

Year 8 builds on understanding about development and looks at changing populations around the world. Where is population growing the fastest? How many people can the world support? How does this affect us in the UK?

Climate change is an important topic for students to investigate and in year 8 students get the chance to do just that by looking at the latest data and findings on this topic. This leads us on to an exploration of sustainable urban living in Weymouth and beyond.

Year 9 looks at a variety of topics designed to enable students to bring together learning from the previous two years. In the Tropical Rainforests unit they are able to link their understanding of physical ecosystems with the pressure on lower income countries to develop their economies. By the end of the topic students will be able to evaluate examples of sustainable uses of the rainforest and reach their own conclusions about the value of these.

Earthquakes and volcanoes, global trade, urbanisation and our changing coasts are all studied in year 9. Each of these topics offers students the opportunity to bring together prior learning and knowledge and to explain, assess and evaluate key geographical features and issues.

At GCSE we follow the AQA Specification. This gives students the opportunity to study a wide range of topics including Natural Hazards, the Living World, UK Landscapes, Changing Urban Areas, the Economic World and Natural Resources in addition to carrying out fieldwork comprising both a human and physical investigation.

Fieldwork is an essential part of a Geographical education. Students carry out a variety of fieldwork on and off the school grounds.

This includes:

A microclimate investigation
An environmental survey
Research on the origin of personal items
Coastal fieldwork on the Jurassic Coast
Fieldwork carried out in Brewery Square in Dorchester (an example of Urban Regeneration)
GCSE fieldwork carried out in Swanage