Geography
Learning Journey
Objectives in geography
The broad geography curriculum at Ibstock is intended to develop and extend students’ knowledge of different locations, environments and processes at all scales, from local to global. Through geography students learn to understand major world issues and how people interact with their environments, helping to develop our student into global citizens. The curriculum is underpinned by several key concepts which students will revisit throughout their 3 years in Ibstock:
- Place: The difference between them and how they are changing
- Scale: Local, national, international and global
- Interdependence: How places are linked through flows of people and resources
- Cultural Understanding: Learning what it is like to live in different places
- Sustainability: How resources can be managed for the benefit of future generations
- Data analysis: Interpreting data to explain why something is as it is
- Geographical Skills: Interpreting a range of geographical information including maps, diagrams, aerial photographs and GIS systems.
The Geography curriculum is planned and sequenced to enable students to apply their geographical knowledge, understanding, skills and approaches appropriately and creatively to real world contexts.
Year 7
In year 7, the geography curriculum consists of three units which are studied for a half term each.
- Map and Atlas Skills: A zombie apocalypse has hit the UK. Students will learn key atlas and map skills in order to survive.
- Cold Places: Students look at what live is like in a range of current day cold environments, as well as how the ice age shaped our current environments
- The UK Uncovered: Students investigate what it is that makes up our island home. From the different countries to the weather to the people.
- Urbanisation: Students study how towns and cities have built up over time, why people move to cities, and what cities might look like in the future.
- Changing Coasts: Students investigate how coastlines interact with land to create landforms and cause flooding
- Prisoners of Geography: Students complete a book study, focusing on how the physical geography of a country has impacted on its place and connections in our global society.
Year 8
In year 8, students’ study five units, with ‘Our Changing World’ being a large focus of the year.
- Development Dynamics: Students explore different countries to answer why some countries are more developed than others.
- Wild Weather: Students look at extreme weather in the UK and around the world, including rainstorms, heatwaves and hurricanes.
- Our Changing World: Students examine how climate change, pollution and deforestation is impacting our world, and what we can do to stop it.
- The Almighty Dollar: Students complete a book study, focusing on the interconnections of the world economy.
Year 9
In year 9, students will study three units and prepare for their end of year assessment. Students will also build on key knowledge and skills in preparation for the move to GCSE. During year 9 students will study:
- Raging Rivers: Students learn how rivers interact with land to create landforms and cause flooding.
- Extreme Earth: Students explore tectonic processes, the theory of plate tectonics, plate margins, volcanic landforms and earthquake hazards.
- Population Problems: Students gain an understanding of how and why population distribution differs and changes as well as the impact this can have around the world.
- The Geography of Crime: Students use GIS systems to track crime across the UK and the world. They will investigate why some areas are more prone to certain crimes than others
- Origins: Students complete a book study, focusing on how the formation of early landforms impacted on the development of the humankind.
Key Stage 4 - AQA GCSE Geography
During your AQA GCSE course, you will be exploring case studies in the United Kingdom (UK), higher income countries (HICs), newly emerging economies (NEEs) and lower income countries (LICs). Topics of study natural hazards, physical landscapes, climate change, poverty, deprivation, global shifts in economic power and the challenge of sustainable resource use. You will also be encouraged to understand your own role in society, by considering different viewpoints, values and attitudes.
How the course is assessed:
Paper 1 – Physical geography - Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes. 88 marks (including 3 marks for spelling, punctuation, grammar and specialist terminology (SPaG). 35% of GCSE.
Topics studied for paper 1: Living with the physical environment: Section A: The challenge of natural hazards. Section B: The living world. Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK
Paper 2 – Human geography - Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes. 88 marks (including 3 marks for SPaG). 35% of GCSE.
Topics studied for paper 2: Challenges in the human environment: Section A: Urban issues and challenges. Section B: The changing economic world. Section C: The challenge of resource management
Paper 3 – Geographical skills - Written exam: 1 hour 15 minutes. 76 marks (including 6 marks for SPaG). 30% of GCSE. Topics studied for paper 3: Section A: Issue evaluation. Section B: Fieldwork. Section C: Geographical skills
Topics covered in year 10:
- Natural hazards
- Tectonic hazards
- Weather hazards
- Climate change
- Resource management
- UK physical landscapes
- Fieldwork – physical
- Urban growth and change
- Urban sustainability
- Fieldwork - human
Topics covered in year 11:
- Resource management
- The challenges of resource management
- Ecosystems
- Tropical rainforests Living in hot environments
- Global variations in economic development
- Reducing the development gap Issue evaluation
- Rapid economic development in LICs and NEEs
- The changing economy of the UK
- Revision
Homework expectations:
At GCSE, the work you do outside of class becomes very important. You need to ensure you complete all work set and hand it in when asked to.
If you miss a lesson, it is vital that you catch up with any work you have missed before the next lesson to ensure you don’t fall too far behind. Homework will be given on a weekly basis, with tasks changing each week:
- Reading articles linked to subject content either already taught (recall) or content that will be taught in future lessons (flipped learning).
- Seneca work to be completed online (you should already be familiar with this)
- Exam question practice - these will be given to you in lesson. They will be marked and feedback will be given.
